Terry Hornbuckle jury sends more notes, still has no verdict

FORT WORTH – Jurors in pastor Terry Hornbuckle’s rape trial deliberated for a fourth full day Monday, but they still did not reach a verdict.

After 28 hours of deliberation, there was no evidence that the jury was deadlocked, state district Judge Scott Wisch said. The jury sent at least 14 notes to the judge Monday, but most were about testimony or evidence connected to the second of three alleged victims.

“We hate to be all this trouble,” Judge Wisch said, quoting the jury about the long wait.

He described the jurors as calm and methodical. Also, they appear to be getting along well, and some have even brought home-baked food to share with others jurors, Judge Wisch said.

The jury of nine women and three men is scheduled to resume its work Tuesday morning. Judge Wisch said the trial would be put on hold Thursday and Friday – if it lasts that long – to accommodate a juror’s previously disclosed family reunion.

Mr. Hornbuckle, 44, was charged with sexually assaulting three women, two of them members of his Agape Christian Fellowship church in Arlington.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors said the deliberations are the longest they’ve encountered in any previous case.

The jury has sent Judge Wisch at least 34 notes since it began deliberating Aug. 15. None of the notes have referred to testimony or exhibits related to the third of Mr. Hornbuckle’s three accusers. She testified earlier in the trial that she smoked methamphetamine with Mr. Hornbuckle before he drugged and raped her.

Monday’s notes included requests for testimony about Jane Doe, the pseudonym for the second alleged victim, and information about benzodiazepine. The drug was found in the system of the first alleged victim, and each of the women testified that Mr. Hornbuckle drugged them.

The defense attorneys said that Mr. Hornbuckle was a womanizer, but any sex with the women was consensual.

Mr. Hornbuckle has also been charged with additional counts of sexual assault, possession of methamphetamine, retaliation and tampering with a witness. Those charges were not included in this trial.

Mr. Hornbuckle and his church have also been sued by some of the women who accused him of rape.

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