Year in Review: Randall ‘Wes' Kerrick trial ends in hung jury

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The city of Charlotte watched this year as its own officer-involved shooting case went to trial.

The charges were dropped against Randall “Wes” Kerrick in August, when a jury couldn’t come to a unanimous decision.

One year, 10 months and six days is a long time to wait, but in July it was finally time for the trial to figure out if Kerrick was justified in shooting Jonathan Ferrell.

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On day 12, the long awaited dashcam video of the September 2013 shooting was released.

“I thought I was going to die,” Kerrick said during the trial.

Though you could hear Kerrick shot Ferrell 10 times, it happened off-camera.

Ultimately, the video was inconclusive. After four weeks of medical, officer and emotional testimony, the case went to the jury.

“The evidence in this case is such that people view it in very different ways. They can look at the same evidence. They can see it in very different ways,” legal expert James Wyatt said.

Despite 19 hours of deliberation, jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. The vote was 8-4 to acquit Kerrick, so the judge declared a mistrial.

Read our past coverage:

• Attorneys file paperwork to expunge Officer Kerrick's records
• Caucus presidents ask for retrial of CMPD officer Kerrick
• Kerrick's attorneys speak for first time since mistrial
• Protesters march in uptown after mistrial in Kerrick trial
• Judge denies change of venue motion in CMPD officer's trial
• $2.25M settlement reached in Jonathan Ferrell civil suit

Ferrell supporters erupted.

Two people were arrested for assaulting officers, but the protests paled in comparison to protests after other police shootings across the country.

Prosecutors had a chance to try Kerrick again, but State Attorney General Roy Cooper chose not to take.

“One juror said even if they put 12 different people in here there would be a division on what happened and a division between guilty and not guilty,” Cooper said.

A month later, Georgia Ferrell visited the site where her son died. She said she was still upset over the outcome, but vowed to keep exploring legal ways to fight.

“It’s not black white life yellow blue. Everybody matters all lives matter that’s what we're working for,” she said.

Meanwhile, the city agreed to pay Kerrick $179,000 in back pay and legal fees.

He has remained silent and out of the public eye ever since the trial that changed the lives of two families.

WSOC