After key witness was killed, jury deadlocks in murder trial

Jurors deadlocked in the murder trial against Julio Morris, who is also accused of ordering the assassination of the key eyewitness in the case against him.

A jury late Thursday announced it could not reach a verdict against Morris in the 2013 slaying of Jazmon Parker, who was gunned down execution-style outside a home in Liberty City. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian declared a mistrial, and prosecutors will have a second chance to try to convict Morris in Parker’s killing.

Morris was originally set to be tried for the Parker murder in January. But during jury selection, one of the chief witnesses, a neighbor named Ezell Finklea, 61, was gunned down in his car in North Miami-Dade.

Finklea and Ira Williams, 70, were killed when a gunman walked up to their car and fired more than a dozen shots. The trial was postponed, and Morris became the immediate suspect in the slaying of Finklea, a military veteran who had testified against the man.

Morris’ trial for the 2013 case began this month. During that trial, prosecutors charged Morris and two other men with the Finklea murder, although jurors were not allowed to know details about the new case or Finklea’s murder.

Prosecutors believe Morris, while in jail, asked his cousin, Howard Waters, to arrange the hit on Finklea. Cellphone records placed Waters near the scene. Surveillance footage placed him at the scene, and even approaching Finklea just before the shooting in a store parking lot, according to court documents.

Waters and James Kelly have also been jailed.