Mistrial Declared in Fatal MN Hit-and-Run

HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) — A judge has declared a mistrial in a fatal hit-and-run case in Apple Valley.

Dakota County Judge David Knutson declared the mistrial Thursday after the jury deadlocked.

On Wednesday, jurors had sent the judge a note saying they were at a stalemate in considering the charges against 41-year-old Eric James Hunter of Rosemount. The Star Tribune reports two of the 12 jurors had been unable to reach a guilty verdict after three days of deliberation.

Hunter was charged with two felony counts of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and also of driving after his license was suspended.

Twenty-six-year-old Joan LeVasseur was struck in March 2009 while running across a street in Apple Valley. She died a week later.

Hunter told the jury that he didn't know what he had hit that night.

Tags: daily updates, mistrial, law, hit-and-run, accident