Bill Cosby trial: panel almost evenly split through deliberations, says juror

A juror in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial said Thursday the panel was almost evenly split in its deliberations.

The juror told The Associated Press on Thursday that a similar number of jurors wanted to convict the 79-year-old entertainer as acquit him on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.

He was the second juror to speak out after the jury deadlocked in the case. A mistrial was declared Saturday after 52 hours of deliberations.

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Another juror told ABC News on Wednesday that jurors voted 10-2 to convict Cosby on two of three counts.

People would just start crying out of nowhere.- Cosby trial juror to ABC News

"People would just start crying out of nowhere, we wouldn't even be talking about [the case] — and people would just start crying," the juror said, adding that one fellow juror punched a concrete wall in the jury room.

The jury member who spoke to the AP confirmed that vote, but said three people then changed their minds. He said the panel was typically more "evenly split" and "up the middle." The juror spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive deliberations.

The accuser, Andrea Constand, testified that Cosby penetrated her with his fingers after giving her pills that left her woozy and unable to tell him to stop. Cosby has said his encounter with Constand was consensual. A prosecutor plans to put him on trial again.

The juror said the panel was "zeroed in" on Constand and "her actions" that night in Cosby's house.

Asked whether he thought Constand was believable, the juror said, "When you ask for help on your resumé, on your resignation letter, which she did, and he, Mr. Cosby, invites her to his home and she arrives in a bare midriff with incense and bath salts, that's a question."

Constand met Cosby at Temple University, where she was director of operations for the women's basketball team and he was on the board of trustees.

The juror characterized deliberations as tense.

"Crying by men and by women and more than one. And the tears came towards the end, it was so tense," he said.

Jurors also spoke in the deliberating room about how the prosecution was "political" and had been revived after several years, the juror said. The panel had learned about the 10-year delay in bringing charges during opening statements.

District Attorney Kevin Steele won election in November 2015 by defeating Bruce Castor, who was seeking to return to the office he once held. Castor was the prosecutor who decided in 2005 not to bring charges against Cosby, which Steele brought up during the campaign. Cosby was charged in December 2015.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.