Winslow avoids more counts after mistrial

VISTA, Calif. — A California jury that convicted former NFL player Kellen Winslow Jr. of raping a 58-year-old homeless woman was unable to break a deadlock on eight other counts Tuesday and a judge declared a mistrial on those charges.

The San Diego County Superior Court judge earlier denied a defense motion to dismiss the undecided charges involving the alleged rapes of a 54-year-old hitchhiker and an unconscious teen in 2003.

Prosecutors did not immediately say whether they would retry those charges but agreed to return to court Friday to discuss that option and possibly set a new trial date.

After the jury was sent home Tuesday, prosecutor Dan Owens told reporters the majority of the 12 jurors believed Winslow was guilty of raping more than one woman.

“Ten jurors did feel very strongly that he had committed forcible sexual offenses against more than one victim,” he said. “That would lead to a lifetime prison term and that would be another factor that we would consider very strongly in determining how to proceed with the case.”

Winslow, who played for Cleveland, Tampa Bay, New England and the New York Jets, currently faces up to nine years in prison after the jury Monday found him guilty of an attack last year on the homeless woman in his picturesque beach community of Encinitas, north of San Diego.

His attorneys indicated Tuesday that they want him to be sentenced after the case is retried and that they plan to appeal the rape conviction.

The jury also found the 35-year-old former tight end guilty of indecent exposure and lewd conduct involving two other women, but jurors found him not guilty of one count of a lewd act.