Jury unable to reach verdict on firearms charge against former Operation UNITE counselor

Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble shows the weapon police seized from Moses.

Circuit Judge Paul Braden declared a mistrial Thursday afternoon due to a hung jury in the trial of a former Operation UNITE counselor.

After nearly four hours of deliberations, the seven-man, five-woman jury announced that it couldn’t reach a verdict in the case of Timothy Moses, 39, of Williamsburg, who was being tried for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

On July 29, Constable Lonnie Foley stopped Moses for reckless driving about 9:42 p.m. on US25W North after he observed Moses’ red 2005 F-150 Ford truck allegedly swerving and crossing into oncoming traffic.

Moses allegedly failed field sobriety tests, and had a .220 blood alcohol level, according to his arrest citation. A person is considered legally intoxicated under Kentucky law with a blood alcohol level of 0.08.

"In rear seat of vehicle on top of clothing, an unloaded SKS type rifle was discovered," Trooper Les Moses wrote on an arrest citation.

Moses pleaded guilty on Nov. 18, 2009, to impersonating a police officer and unlawful possession of a weapon on school property, and received a five-year probated prison sentence on April 12, 2010. In part, his probation conditions were that he not consume alcohol and not possess any firearms.

On Oct. 20, 2006, he allegedly brought a .40 caliber Glock handgun onto the Whitley County High School campus during a football game, and brandished it while on the campus under the pretense that he was a police officer, authorities said.
At the time of the incident, Moses was a drug counselor for UNITE, but later resigned.

Jurors spent nearly three times longer deliberating the verdict than they did hearing actual testimony during the trial.
Prosecutors called only two witnesses, Foley and Trooper Les Moses. Defense attorneys called a total of two witnesses, including the defendant and his ex-girlfriend, Rachel Green. All four witnesses spent less than one hour and 20 minutes testifying overall.

In his closing argument, defense attorney David Hoskins told jurors that on the surface, this appeared to be an open and shut case since his client was a convicted felon and that a gun was found inside his vehicle.

"This is Tim’s day in court on this charge. He will have another day in court on his DUI charge. On first glance, this case looks pretty bad for Tim," Hoskins said. "Tim didn’t know that rifle was in the vehicle that day. … Tim had to have been aware that gun was in the vehicle for him to be convicted."

Tim Moses and Green both told jurors that on July 29, Moses called Green in the early afternoon informing her that he was breaking off their relationship.

After he left work, he ran an errand and went to her home in Jellico, Tenn., to pick up his belongings.

Moses testified that prior to his guilty plea, he knew he would have to get rid of his firearms, and gave the rifle to Green so she could pass it on to her brother.

He said that the next time he saw the gun was during his trial Thursday, and that he hadn’t touched any gun since he became a convicted felon.

Green testified that Moses gave her the gun, which she said she placed in the back of a closet where some of Moses clothes were kept.

She testified there was no light in the dark closet, where Moses also kept some of his clothes and that she didn’t believe that he knew the gun was there.

Green and Moses told jurors that they each made multiple trips out to his truck carrying his belongings. Green said that she carried the rifle out, and placed it in the back seat of the truck on top of some clothing.

Green said that she didn’t remember if the back truck door was closed after she placed the gun inside, or if Moses took anything out to the backseat of the truck after she placed the gun there.

Moses testified that he didn’t know the gun was in the truck when he left her home some time between 6 – 6:30 p.m.

"After I left Rachel’s I went to the bar and began drinking," Moses testified.

Hoskins noted in his closing argument that Foley, who was the officer that initially pulled over Tim Moses, didn’t see the rifle in the back seat, and that it was Trooper Les Moses, who discovered it.

In his closing argument, Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble noted that when Trooper Moses asked Les Moses about the gun at the Whitley County Detention Center on the night he was arrested, his first response wasn’t to ask what gun the trooper was talking about or where he found it.

He argued that this is something you would expect someone, who didn’t know a gun was there, to ask about.

Instead, Trimble noted that Moses response was "I knew I shouldn’t have had it."

"This is a fairly simple case. The defendant knew he wasn’t to be in possession if any type of weapon," Trimble told jurors. "That gun was in his possession and he left with it. People that own guns are very possessive of them. He’s asking you to believe something that is just not true."

Jurors started deliberating about 1:28 p.m. About an hour later, jurors sent out a note to the judge indicating they thought they were hung, or were unable to agree on a verdict. A verdict in a criminal case must be unanimous.

Five minutes later, jurors were brought back into the courtroom and Braden read them an additional jury instruction.

The instruction read in part, "Each juror must decide the case in their own mind but only after an impartial consideration of the evidence with the other jurors; in the course of deliberations, a juror should not hesitate to reexamine their own views and change an opinion if the juror is convinced it is erroneous; and no juror should surrender their honest conviction as to the weight of effect on the evidence solely because of the opinion of the other jurors, or for the mere purpose of returning a verdict."

Jurors then began deliberations again about 2:41 p.m., and 25 minutes later sent out a second note to the judge indicating they were still hung and asking three questions.

They wanted to know if Green testified she placed the gun in Moses truck or her own truck, if anything was on top of the gun, and when did Moses bring the gun to Green’s residence.

Thirty-four minutes later, jurors were brought back into the courtroom, and court officials replayed Green’s 15 minutes of testimony.

Jurors started deliberating again at 3:55 p.m., and sent a third note to the judge about 5:21 p.m. indicating they were still hung.
At that point Braden declared a mistrial due to the hung jury, and scheduled a new trial date for May 26.
Braden denied a request to reconsider granting Moses bond until the case is retried.

"The evidence is substantial at least as far as the court has heard," Braden responded alluding to Moses probation revocation hearing, which is set for Feb. 14 in Moses original case.

After the trial both Hoskins and Trimble said that they were disappointed by the outcome, and that the case would be tried again.