A motion hearing held Wednesday in the case of a teenager convicted of murder in a 2022 shooting in Bismarck who is appealing to the North Dakota Supreme Court focused on whether jurors delivered a unanimous verdict earlier this year.
Jesse Taylor Jr. was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in January after a jury found him guilty in the death of Maurice Thunder Shield after a confrontation at a north Bismarck motel.
Taylor is appealing the jury verdict. His attorney, Kiara Kraus-Parr, cited what she said were three issues: the jury's verdict was not unanimous; the trial court allegedly erred regarding the cross-examination of a witness; and the trial court allegedly imposed an illegal sentence based on Taylor's age at the time.
During Wednesday's hearing before South Central District Judge James Hill, Kraus-Parr requested that an audio recording of a poll from jurors following the verdict be submitted as an exhibit to the state Supreme Court. Official records are the trial court transcripts, according to state Supreme Court appellate rules.
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Kraus-Parr's request brings the trial court record under possible scrutiny because following the delivery of the jury's verdict, a poll was conducted during which Hill, acting as trial court judge, questioned each juror individually, asking if the guilty verdict was something they agreed with.
Her appeal characterized juror No. 2 as being "unresponsive" to Hill's question, adding that the nonresponse brings the requirement of a unanimous verdict into question.
Quoting from the trial transcript, Hill created a record that confirmed all 12 jurors said they agreed with the verdict and said he would submit an order to the state Supreme Court confirming the jurors' declarations.
He also noted that the jury box in the trial courtroom does not feature microphones, except in the case of jury selections. In Taylor's case, the closest microphone was on a witness stand several feet away from where jurors sat when they were asked to answer Hill's question about agreeing with the verdict.
Assistant Burleigh County State's Attorney Dennis Ingold didn't oppose Kraus-Parr's motion, but he did tell Hill that that portion of the recorded audio hadn't been prepared as a potential exhibit because it's not part of an official record.
Hill asked Ingold to get the audio prepared so it could be submitted along with the order confirming Taylor's verdict.
Taylor, 16 at the time of the shooting, was tried as an adult. The guilty verdict, announced after roughly 2 ½ hours of deliberations, was delivered in September 2023. Taylor was 17 at that time but had turned 18 years old prior to his sentencing. Under a calculation of life expectancy based on vital statistics, Hill sentenced Taylor to serve nearly 54 years before he is eligible for parole, according to court documents.
Kraus-Parr's appeal argued that Hill should have used Taylor's age of 18 at the time of sentencing as a determining factor rather than Taylor's age of 17 when he was convicted.
Oral arguments have been requested but not yet scheduled, as the state Supreme Court issued a 30-day stay in proceedings so the question of the jury's verdict could be answered. The 30-day stay expires Friday.