MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A second jury could not come to a unanimous decision Friday, leading to a second mistrial in a case against Ibrahim Hamid, who has been charged with second-degree sexual assault.
Judge Russell Clawges declared the mistrial Friday afternoon after the jury deliberated for about seven hours without reaching a consensus.
“The jury’s decision is bittersweet,” Defense Attorney Lance Rollo said. “Mr. Hamid has maintained his innocence throughout both trials and was looking forward to having his name finally cleared. Having said that, we’re certainly not disappointed with our second mistrial.”
Hamid was on trial in June and that jury also failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
The alleged victim in the case testified that in the early morning hours of April 28, 2017, she was sexually assaulted by a man after he drove her home following a night out with friends.
The Dominion Post does not typically name victims of alleged sexual assaults.
Detective J. Friend, of the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department, told jurors about his investigation and how it led him to arrest Hamid as the suspect.
Jurors also heard from Laura Schmidle, the sexual assault nurse examiner who examined the victim; Dr. Daniel Long, who explained how memory doesn’t work like a video recorder and can often be fragmented. Long also said that fragmentation can be made worse by trauma and alcohol.
The victim does not remember many details of the night in question, but said she did remember attempting to stop her attacker.
An employee of the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory also testified about how DNA matches are made and how a swab from the exam conducted by Schmidle matched a swab taken by Friend during his interview with Hamid.
Hamid testified that the encounter was consensual.
A third trial has been scheduled for February.
by The Dominion Post