Mistrial declared in Mark Kaylor trial

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (WDEF) –  A former Red Bank Police officer on trial for alleged assault and official misconduct received some good news and some bad news from the jury.

After nearly two days of jury deliberations in the Mark Kaylor criminal trial,  there was no verdict. The jury was deadlocked on two of the three charges, so the Judge declared a mistrial.

“There’s no reasonable probability the jury can reach a unanimous verdict in this case. A mistrial is appropriate when a trial can not continue or if the trial does continue, a miscarriage of justice will occur. Pursuant of Tennessee rule of criminal procedure 32DE2, the manifest does exist to declare a mistrial. In this case, the court does declare,” said Judge Tom Greenholtz as he addressed the courtroom.

Jurors unanimously agreed to acquit Mark Kaylor of the most serious charge of aggravated assault on Candido Medina-Resendiz, but when it came to the other charges of official misconduct and reckless assault, the jury agreed to disagree.

“They hung up on the next less serious count which is reckless assault account. I don’t know what that means. I think we’re going to have to think about that. They didn’t say they thought there was a guilt of that, they said they were hung up and could not be unanimous. One of the things we don’t know is if it was 11-1, 10-2, or where it was,” said Kaylor’s attorney Lee Davis.

News 12 attempted to talk to the prosecution but because, the case is still ongoing, both junior prosecutors were not allowed to make comments.

A court hearing has been scheduled for November 9 to discuss the case going forward. It’s at that hearing that Kaylor’s attorney may ask for a change of venue due to the amount of media coverage.