HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A jury convicted a man of one charge in connection to the June 2023 death of Kecoughtan High School teacher Joi Brown, but deadlocked on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
It means Calvin Jackson, found guilty of shooting into an occupied building, faces a maximum five-year prison term for the Class 6 felony and was taken back into custody.
However, the judge declared a deadlocked jury and a mistrial on the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, as well as a firearm charge, and the prosecutor said they will retry the case.
The jury foreman, speaking off camera, told 10 On Your Side that the reason the jury deadlocked had to do with the evidence photos of the wounds. The jury foreman told WAVY that the vote was nine in favor of murder and three in favor of manslaughter. But that was as close as the jury got to a consensus.
“The hang-up that the jury came across [was] that there was an inconsistency of photos regarding the gunshot wounds of both the defendant and the victim,” the jury foreman said. “And that was one of the larger reasons why we could not come to a determination of the verdict.” The foreman did not further explain what it was the jurors wanted to see in the photos.
Both Brown’s family and Jackson’s family declined to speak with 10 On Your Side following the verdicts. And though Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell declined to speak on camera, he did provide a written response, saying, “we will retry this case.”
A hearing to plot out the next steps will be May 23.
A jury had deliberated three hours Wednesday afternoon but did not come to a verdict.
Jackson and Brown had been together for 19 years and had a child together, but she had told him she wanted to end the relationship. He is charged with shooting her dead in her bedroom in the house they shared on Wendell Drive.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Jennifer Truitt said the only thing important in Jackson’s life was Jackson, and if he couldn’t have Brown, no one else could.
Jackson’s defense attorney, Jefferson Spears, said there might be theories about how Brown died, but no proof.
Spears argued that the killing was in a “burning fire of intense passion” and did not involve malice, as he argued for voluntary manslaughter.
But in her rebuttal, prosecutor Amanda Winchester said it was an ambush killing of the woman who was a favorite physical education and health teacher at Kecoughtan High School.
In closing arguments, the Commonwealth referred to a text that Brown sent shortly before her death saying “CJ wants to put me in a casket.”
Check with WAVY.com for updates.