For a second time this week, a Schuylkill County jury on Thursday did not convict David R. Moran of charges stemming from an alleged encounter with a Mahanoy City woman, although this time he was acquitted on only one charge.
Moran, 49, of Pottsville, did not react as the jury of eight women and four men found him not guilty of aggravated assault but did not reach a verdict on charges of burglary, intimidating witness or victim, criminal trespass and simple assault.
Jurors deliberated approximately 3 1/2 hours before reaching their verdict to end the one-day trial over which Judge Jacqueline L. Russell presided. Russell had dismissed a charge of stalking before the jury started deliberations.
Assistant District Attorney Debra A. Smith said after the verdict that she would consult with District Attorney Christine A. Holman before deciding whether to retry Moran on the remaining four charges. Because the jury did not reach a verdict on those charges, Moran can be retried on them without violating the constitutional ban on double jeopardy.
The earliest a retrial could occur would be during the April criminal court term, which begins April 4.
Mahanoy City police charged Moran, who did not testify and presented no evidence at Thursday’s trial, with assaulting the woman about 1:30 p.m. June 2, 2015, at her Mahanoy Avenue home. Police alleged Moran, formerly of Brandonville, assaulted the woman to try to dissuade her from pursuing rape and other charges stemming from an earlier incident in East Union Township.
“He grabbed my head. He hit my head against the door jamb. He punched me on the left side of the face,” the woman testified.
“Did he have permission to be in your house?” Smith, who showed photographs of the woman’s injuries to the jury, asked her.
“No,” she answered.
She testified she went to borough police and then the hospital after the assault.
“Did you have pain as a result of what happened?” Smith asked her.
“Yes. I had migraines. I was dizzy. I wasn’t feeling well,” she said.
On cross-examination by Assistant Public Defender Kent D. Watkins, Moran’s lawyer, the woman said that before she went to the police, she picked up a child she was supposed to baby-sit. After seeing the police, she said she also picked up her daughter and then her husband, and then ate dinner, before going to the hospital.
The woman’s husband testified he also did not give Moran permission to enter their home. He also said Moran was upset that his wife was not returning his telephone calls.
He also said the photographs accurately showed what his wife looked like a few hours after the alleged incident.
“Did her face still look like that?” Smith asked him.
“Yes, it did,” he replied.
Borough police Patrolman Thomas J. Rentschler testified he talked with, and took the photos of, the woman.
Watkins said in his closing argument that there was no real evidence, except for the woman’s testimony, against Moran.
“There’s no evidence that Mr. Moran was in that house,” he said.
Smith said in her closing argument that the evidence pointed only to Moran.
“He takes her and she smashes her face,” Smith said. “The police didn’t have to go ... to the house.”
On Monday, a different jury found Moran not guilty of two counts of rape, three of aggravated indecent assault and one each of intimidating witness or victim, sexual assault, terroristic threats and simple assault.