Jury out after nine hours of rape trial deliberation

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Jury out after nine hours of rape trial deliberation
By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, January 12, 2008

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A military jury that had not reached a verdict in a rape case against a senior airman after more than nine hours of deliberation Thursday was to resume the effort Friday morning at Osan Air Base.

The jury was weighing the verdict in the court-martial of Senior Airman Gabriel R. Contreras, who is accused of helping bring about the alleged rape of a female airman last February in her dorm room.

Contreras, of Osan’s 51st Munitions Squadron, is accused of bringing Senior Airman Joshua L. Amundson to the woman’s dorm room for a sexual threesome after Contreras had consensual sex with the woman, according to prosecutors.

The court-martial began Tuesday before military judge Col. Mark L. Allred, chief regional military judge for the Pacific region, and a seven-member jury of Air Force officers and noncommissioned officers.

The jury began deliberating its verdict Thursday afternoon, but Allred excused them for the night at about 10:30 p.m.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51561