Crime & Safety
UPDATED: Ali Jury at Impasse in Twin Trial
The jury has been unable to reach a consensus on a verdict in the twin murder trial, court officials say.
UPDATE 7:00 p.m. - The jury recessed for the second straight day on Wednesday around 5 p.m. They are scheduled to reconvene at Howard County Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Thursday to continue deliberations.
Original Story 1:42 p.m.
The jury deliberating whether Wael Ali was the killer of his twin brother, Wasel, is at an impasse, according to Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office.
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Kirwan said jurors handed a note to Judge Richard S. Bernhardt at 11:10 a.m. notifying him that they were unable to make a decision.
“There’s no change since the jury left last night,” said Kirwan, quoting the jury’s note. “We don’t believe we can get beyond this point.”
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Bernhardt called the jury back into the courtroom around noon Wednesday and told them they had only deliberated for six hours after hearing six days of testimony, according to Kirwan.
After Bernhardt prompted them to continue, the jury sent another note to Bernhardt at 12:25 p.m. that said the jury would like to again watch mall surveillance video that shows the last time the twins were seen together, leaving in opposite directions, and two videos from the interviews of Wael Ali conducted by cold case detective Nick DeCarlo.
Prosecutors those videos show inconsistencies in Ali’s statements about what he was doing in the 25 minutes after leaving the mall the day Wasel is believed to have been killed.
Kirwan said a new laptop computer was purchased to allow the jury to view the tapes. He said there were concerns a used laptop may contain files that would influence the jury.
During yesterday, the defense argued that there was no physical evidence in the state’s case to link Wael to the crime scene or the body.
The prosecution said Wael killed his brother after blaming him for a run-in with the police.
Wael Ali was arrested in Marietta, GA, in September of 2011 after a cold case investigation led investigators to him. In 2007, both twins lived on the East side of Columbia with their parents. The twins were born in Sudan, but moved to the United States with their family in 1994.
If the jury cannot come to consensus it will cause a mistrial and the case may be retried.
Update 2:55 p.m. - The seventh paragraph was changed to reflect the purchase of a laptop for the jury.
