Judge retains jury in Auburn cop trial after hallway kerfuffle

A King County Superior Court judge ordered jury deliberations to resume on Wednesday after they were temporarily halted in the murder trial of Auburn police officer Jeffrey Nelson.

The jury had indicated Tuesday that they had reached a verdict on one of two charges.

Nelson is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the 2019 shooting death of Jesse Sarey. Nelson shot Sarey, 26, once in the head and once in the abdomen outside of Sunshine Grocery in Auburn.

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Wednesday’s pause came after Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps was informed that two jurors were overheard chatting about the case in the hallway of the Maleng Regional Justice Center, which depending on the content of the conversation, could have violated their instructions to only deliberate when all 12 jurors are present.

Bridgette Maryman, an attorney with the King County Prosecutor’s Office, said she saw a woman sporting a juror badge discussing the case with a man who she believed to be another juror shortly before deliberations were planned to resume at 9 a.m.

Maryman told Phelps that she heard the female juror say, “[We’re] not here to be best friends. The 12 of us are here because one person was killed and another person is on trial.”

Maryman said the woman also appeared to be discussing the content of evidentiary photos, but couldn’t say which photos she was speaking to.

It’s not the first time the integrity of the case has been questioned as it relates to jurors.

Last week, before closing arguments could take place, Phelps told a packed courtroom that Tim Leary, one of Nelson’s defense attorneys, arrived early to find dozens of fliers hung in the courthouse parking garage pointing out Nelson’s two previous deadly force incidents while working at the Auburn Police Department. The court had excluded information about these previous cases from the trial.

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Leary removed the posters but Phelps was concerned that jurors could have seen them, providing grounds for a mistrial. None of the jurors said they had seen the fliers.

On Wednesday, the third day of jury deliberations, Phelps told the courtroom that jurors had indicated Tuesday that they’d reached a consensus on one of the two charges against Nelson. But because the jurors hadn’t properly filled out the verdict forms, Phelps had sent them back to deliberations Tuesday. The defense argued that Phelps, who hadn’t mentioned the jury’s consensus at the time they originally handed in the verdict forms, should have accepted the forms despite the errors.

Amy Radil contributed reporting for this story.