STAFFORD, Va. (AP) — Another mistrial has been declared in the case of a Virginia man charged with child sex abuse who has spent more than two years in jail without a conviction.
The Free Lance-Star reports 35-year-old Herbert Eugene Smitley’s trial for aggravated sexual battery was supposed to start Wednesday. A judge declared a mistrial after the jury selection process left 17 jurors from which to select a panel, instead of the required 20.
A new trial is scheduled for Aug. 8.
Smitley was arrested in May 2015 on three counts of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of sodomy involving a 13-year-old girl. The jury couldn’t agree on a verdict in his first trial last March. In January, another jury acquitted Smitley of four charges, but couldn’t agree on the remaining count.
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Information from: The Free Lance-Star, http://www.fredericksburg.com/
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