Jury to resume debate after 2 days, no verdict

The defendant is accused of raping a 10-year-old boy.

YOUNGSTOWN — After two full days in the jury room without reaching a verdict, a jury of seven women and five men will return to the Mahoning County Courthouse at 9 a.m. today to keep trying.

They will deliberate the case of a man charged with three counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition involving a 10-year-old boy.

On Friday afternoon, jurors began deliberating the fate of Nicholas C. Congemi, 27, of Meadowbrook Avenue, who faces a mandatory life prison term if he’s convicted on any of the rape counts and one to five years in prison if he’s convicted on the gross sexual imposition charge. The offenses, on which Congemi was indicted in August 2003, allegedly occurred in May through August 2002 at Congemi’s residence, where the boy cut the grass. The trial began May 14.

At the end of Tuesday’s deliberations, the jurors told Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court they were unable to reach a consensus and believed they were at an impasse.

Judge Evans then said, “There is no reason to believe the case will ever be submitted to a jury more capable, impartial or intelligent than this one,” and added that jurors should not hesitate to re-examine their views. “It is your duty to decide the case if you can conscientiously do so,” the judge said.

After the jurors left the courtroom, Judge Evans overruled a motion for a mistrial by Congemi’s lawyer, John Shultz, who said the jurors told the bailiff more than once that they were deadlocked. Shultz said that the judge omitted another part of the instruction, which says there are some situations in which jurors cannot achieve a unanimous verdict.