TAMPA — The jury tasked with deciding the fate of Michael Keetley, the ice cream man accused of a double murder, could not reach a verdict Friday.
“Upon further deliberation and discussion, the jury has not reached a unanimous verdict,” jurors wrote in a note to the judge. “The jury is hung. This is not going to change.”
The deadlock forced Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher C. Sabella to declare a mistrial. He set a new trial date for May 11.
Keetley, 49, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder in a 2010 shooting at a home in Ruskin that prosecutors called a case of mistaken identity. It is the longest running case in Hillsborough County.
Jurors deliberated for about seven hours over two days before announcing their decision.
They telegraphed their struggle toward unanimity starting on Thursday when, after five hours of deliberating, they asked to go home.
“Several of the jurors wish to reflect upon the case," jurors wrote in a note to Sabella. The judge let them go at about 4:30 p.m., telling them to reconvene Friday morning at 9 a.m.
But after another hour of considering the case Friday morning, the group of nine women and three men still weren’t any closer to reaching a decision.
They informed Sabella at about 10 a.m. Friday they were hung.
“The jury has reached a point in the deliberations where after much and thorough discussion and many votes, it is certain we cannot reach a unanimous verdict,” jurors wrote in a note to the judge. “What would you like us to do at this point?”
Sabella brought jurors into the courtroom for an instruction known as an Allen charge, encouraging them to try again.
“I have only one request of you,” goes the instruction that Sabella read aloud. “By law, I cannot demand this of you, but I want you to go back into the jury room. Then, taking turns, tell each of the other jurors about any weakness of your own position. You should not interrupt each other or comment on each other’s views until each of you has had a chance to talk. After you have done that, if you simply cannot reach a verdict, then return to the courtroom and I will declare this case mistried, and will discharge you with my sincere appreciation for your services.”
The case is Hillsborough County’s longest running murder trial, spanning nearly a decade since Keetley was arrested and accused of shooting six men on a Ruskin porch early on Thanksgiving morning in 2010. The trial, from jury selection to deliberations, has taken three weeks.
A deadlocked jury would likely mean another trial unless prosecutors dropped the charges or both sides worked out a plea deal.
If jurors find Keetley guilty of first-degree murder, he will face an automatic sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for years but dropped their bid to have Keetley executed last year.
Keetley, dressed in a yellow button-down shirt and gray slacks, smirked as the judge instructed the jury to try again.
A former ice cream man who drove his purple truck through southern Hillsborough County neighborhoods, Keetley is accused of taking on a vigilante role, exacting revenge for an attack he suffered months before.
In January 2010, someone robbed Keetley for $12 and shot him four times. Months went by without an arrest. Meanwhile, Keetley languished, Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner told jurors during his closing argument on Thursday. Keetley required surgery and therapy. He moved back into his parents’ home and slept in a hospital bed in the dining room, Pruner said.
Pruner said Keetley took matters into his own hands, conducting his own investigation to identify and find his attacker. Keetley zeroed in on a man called “Creep" or “Creeper,” who he believed attacked him, investigators said. Keetley sought out Creep that Thanksgiving morning and, in what prosecutors have said was a case of mistaken identity, approached a group of men hanging out on a front porch in Ruskin.
He asked for “Creeper.” He then told them all to get down. As the victims dropped to their knees, the shooting began.
Brothers Juan and Sergio Guitron were killed. Four others were injured.
The gunman then drove off. Keetley was arrested a few days later.
Several of the survivors testified during the trial.
Daniel Beltran told jurors the group had gathered on the porch of a home on Ocean Mist Court to drink and play cards in the early morning hours. He said a man pulled up in a dark van and wore a shirt that read “sheriff.” He said he was looking for Creep, asked for their identification and had them get on the ground.
Juan Guitron began to argue with him, Beltran recalled to jurors.
“Juan told him, ‘Hey man, chill out,'" Beltran testified. “He’s like, ‘You chill out.’ Then he shot him right in the chest. Then he pumped it again and he shot him again.”
Beltran testified that he still believed the man was a law enforcement officer until he stepped onto the porch and shot another man, Richard Cantu, in the head. Beltran said he was splattered with blood.
Beltran said he was shot in the hip, chest and back, and that a round missed his head.
Gonzalo Guevara, another shooting survivor, also testified. His account was similar to Beltran’s, except Guevara said he was shot four times in the hand, chest, torso and lower back as he tried to hand over his identification.
Before he was shot, he testified, he got a good look at the gunman. When he was later shown a series of photos in a hospital bed, Guevara picked a mug shot of Keetley. He cried when he saw the image. He said he was “2,000 percent sure” it was the same man.
Keetley has maintained his innocence.
"I’m just telling you, it wasn’t me and it wasn’t the van,” Keetley said in audio played for the jury of an interview between the ice cream man and detectives. “It just wasn’t.”
and took three full weeks to try.
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