Mistrial declared after jury deadlocks in trial over Will County crash that killed pregnant woman, three children
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Will County judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors deadlocked in the trial of Sean Woulfe, who was charged in a 2017 crash that killed a pregnant woman and her three children as she drove them to bible camp.
Woulfe is charged with 16 counts of reckless homicide in the crash killed Lindsey Schmidt, 29, and sons Caleb, 1; Weston, 4; and Owen, 6, all of Beecher.
Prosecutors have said Woulfe was going more than 20 mph over the 55 mph limit when he ran a stop sign on July 24, 2017, in unincorporated Beecher, hitting Schmidt's 2014 Subaru Outback, which rolled over into a field.
Lindsey Schmidt and her son, Caleb, died at the scene. Weston Schmidt died the next day, and Owen Schmidt died two days after that.
Jurors spent more than 15 hours over the last three days deliberating, and had told the judge the vote was 11-1 to convict on Tuesday, but the judge told them to continue deliberations before the jury said Wednesday that going any further would not change anything.
Schmidt's family held up their hands and said they were not ready to talk about the mistrial after the jury deadlocked.
CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller said, when the jurors first informed the judge of a potential deadlock on Tuesday, the judge didn't follow proper procedure.
"What is really highly unusual about this case is the jury came back and said, 'judge, we are deadlocked, and by the way, we're deadlocked with 11 of us are saying guilty and one of us is saying not guilty. That's totally improper procedure. Nobody is supposed to know what the split is; whether it's 11-1 guilty, 11-1 not guilty, you're not supposed to know," Miller said.
It was not immediately clear if Will County prosecutors would seek to try Woulfe again, but Miller said he expects they would.
"It's a mistrial. Double jeopardy does not attach. This gentleman can be tried again, but they start from square one," Miller said.
A hearing on the case is set for May 10th.
