Hamilton County residents still don't know whether a former Red Bank police officer used excessive force during a 2014 traffic stop.
After deliberating six hours Thursday in Criminal Court, jurors couldn't decide whether Mark Kaylor was guilty of aggravated assault and official misconduct. Judge Tom Greenholtz announced around 5 p.m. that a courtroom officer handed him a note: "Jury states that they are hung upon delivering a verdict."
Greenholtz instructed them to return today at 8:30 a.m.
For three days, jurors have listened to prosecutors square off against Kaylor's defense attorney, Lee Davis. Ultimately, the most important elements of the case have boiled down to April 13, 2014, dash camera footage showing Kaylor punching Candido Medina-Resendiz seven times about the face and shoulders.
Prosecutors say Kaylor's behavior was excessive, and that he could have used less-violent arrest techniques when he rushed into a struggle between Medina-Resendiz and other Red Bank back-up officers.
"He had the tools to do it right," prosecutor Kevin Brown said during closing arguments. He reached over, grabbed Kaylor's 2010 graduation plaque from the Cleveland State Law Enforcement Training Academy and walked around the room, holding it up in the air.
"He knew how to do it right."
As a result of the encounter, prosecutors said earlier in the week, Medina-Resendiz, 26, needed surgery to repair a fractured eye socket. He still wears a titanium plate for support there, they added.
"When [Kaylor] was on top of that man with his hands behind his back, he wanted a trial by combat," Brown said Thursday. "He punched him in the face seven times and broke the bone under his eye. Think about how much force that takes."
Brown urged jurors to watch the dashcam footage, to decide for themselves whether Kaylor had properly assessed the situation when he started punching Medina-Resendiz, who was on the ground and partially handcuffed.
"We've talked about how these situations are fluid," Brown said. "I'd submit to you that that situation was de-escalating, with his hands behind his back. And [Kaylor] escalated it, with seven blows to the face."
Davis, meanwhile, asked jurors to remember the context of the events, arguing that prosecutors were applying 20/20 hindsight to three seconds of a difficult situation in which officers faced potential threats.
Kaylor pulled Medina-Resendiz's car over that night around 3 a.m. for drunk driving along Dayton Boulevard. During the stop, the officer conducted a field sobriety test on Medina-Resendiz's friend, whom he had asked to drive because he was too drunk.
When Medina-Resendiz started resisting, other back-up officers applied more powerful uses of force, including stun guns and batons, Davis said. Not Kaylor, however, who only used his fists when he realized nothing else was working, he added. Prosecutors routinely pointed out that punches to the head aren't encouraged in police training.
They also suggested a communication breakdown between the officers and Medina-Resendiz, who needed a translator on the stand Tuesday.
But Medina-Resendiz should have known what officers were doing, even if there was a communication barrier, Davis told jurors. That's because Medina-Resendiz was arrested at least four times before, the defense attorney said.
"The point is, he knows how to handle himself when there's an arrest," Davis said.
Kaylor faces charges of aggravated assault and official misconduct. Aggravated assault carries a three-to-six-year term, while official misconduct has a sentence of 11 months and 29 days.
Prosecutors had to dismiss the second count of Kaylor's indictment - reckless endangerment - earlier this week, Greenholtz said. Kaylor resigned from the Red Bank Police Department shortly after District Attorney General Neal Pinkston secured that indictment in March 2015.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.