After mistrial, what's next for Benton?

After jurors deliberated for 17 and a half hours on the fate of Ashley Benton, the 17-year-old charged with the murder of a fellow teen during a gang fight last summer, we found out what'll happen to Benton — or rather, we didn't. Noting that the jury had been deadlocked for six hours, state District Judge Devon Anderson declared a mistrial Friday. Brian Wice, a member of Benton's defense team, said one juror had voted not guilty, five voted guilty or murder and six opted to vote guilty of possession of a prohibited weapon, a lesser charge. "Our position is, seven jurors thought that she was not guilty of murder," Wice told the Chronicle. Prosecutor Mia Magness told the Chron that she agreed with Wice's count, but didn't elaborate on what she found out from an interview with jurors.

So what happens now? First, a court hearing two weeks from now, and then it'll be up to the DA's office to decide whether to pursue a second trial. According to KPRC, Benton's attorneys said they won't consider a deal that would require Benton — who admitted to stabbing MS-13 member Gabriel Granillo to death, but claims she did so in self defense — to plead guilty to murder. "Anytime you can walk away from the courthouse without a conviction is a victory," defense attorney Kent Schaffer told Channel 2. "Now, it's not the ultimate victory we wanted and we believe we should get. But we live to fight another day, and we will." Troy McKinney, a Houston defense attorney, told the Chronicle that the mistrial is good news for Benton's attorneys no matter what might happen with regard to a retrial. "They've played all their cards. There's nothing else to play," he said of the prosecution. "The defense is what the defense was, and still is. I mean, self-defense doesn't change. And the fact that [the prosecution] wasn't able to convince the jury this time, after a long deliberation, doesn't bode well for next time — if there is a next time."