The trial of Jose Ibarra was mercifully short by murder-trial standards. Ibarra murdered Laken Riley. The qualifier of “alleged” no longer applies. Rarely does a defendant agree to a bench trial. The evidence to convict in the Ibarra case was overwhelming. The judge didn’t have to deliberate. He found Ibarra guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.  

With a jury trial, instructions need to be prepared and read to the jury, and the jury must wait to consider the evidence after the trial is over and all jurors are in the jury room. As they say, "Those are the rules." 

During one trial, I was examining a potential juror during voir dire. The potential juror was a "college student" and, clearly, not very bright. She finally turned to the judge and announced that she would not be able to concentrate. She said that she wouldn’t listen to anything I or the other attorney said. Ouch. The judge called us to the bench and told us:  

"Being stupid isn’t a 'for cause' reason" for him to excuse her. One of us, he said, would have to use a peremptory challenge. I was the last to use one, so the other guy was forced to “thank” and excuse her.  

In another trial, I put up a finger to get the attention of the judge. Another attorney was examining a witness. He noticed, and I pointed at the jury box. One of the jurors was nodding off. He asked the juror next to the older man to wake him up. The judge told the jury to “please pay attention” to all of the evidence, and I asked the attorney to begin his examination of that witness from the beginning. 

Down in Florida this week, a murder trial ended in a mistrial because of one juror’s misconduct. 

An 80-year-old crosswording juror was the reason for the mistrial. Her name is Sallie Sue Smith.  

According to her:  

"It was me," Smith told WEAR News. "Well, I didn’t know it was a bad thing. I do that when I concentrate and I’m listening. You couldn’t see the bench or witness stand very well cause it was dark. But I could hear it... That’s just the way I do. I just do that and I had no idea and then when they told me I wasn't supposed to do it, I stopped. And then, today, when I went into the jury room, I had another crossword puzzle." 

The foreperson had a different version of events

"Her screaming, quite literally screaming, at other jurors was almost insanity to me as probably the youngest juror on this trial and her to be the oldest," Gusarov says. "She had told us she was 80 years old. I don't think that has to sway either way, but that was very interesting. You should be much more better, civilized better adults." 

Sheila Agee was on trial for first-degree murder. The allegation was that Sheila and her son Keith had planned to murder Brooklyn Sims. Sims was Sheila Agee's co-worker. Sheila and Sims both worked at a Home Depot. Keith Agee and Brooklyn had a son together. Keith showed up at the Home Depot, pulled a gun, and killed Sims. He was convicted last December — not a hard case for conviction. The murder was witnessed, and it was on video. Keith admitted he killed Sims. Text messages were exchanged between mother (Sheila) and son (Keith) about what Keith Agee would and, according to Sheila, should do. Those text messages were used in both trials.  

After Agee told his mother he wanted to “just shoot” Sims, Sheila Agee allegedly egged him on, telling that if he didn’t “come kill her” he would be a “bitch.” 

She then went on to give him Sims’ location before advising him to “erase” the incriminating texts “cause I don’t want nobody to know I was texting you stupid ass,” the exchange shows. 

According to other jurors in the Sheila Agee trial, Sallie Sue just wasn’t “getting” the idea of the text messages. Smith wasn’t agreeing with the other jurors, who clearly were trying to get her to look at and consider evidence. Instead, Smith was busy doing a crossword. The judge said that he’s never seen a juror “doing a crossword” in trial.  

Jury selection is an important part of the process. Sometimes, you think you have a good panel. Sometimes, they fool you. Or, at least one fools you.   

Sheila Agee will be retried in February 2025.