Jury Deliberates Three Days in Dean Penney Trial Without Verdict

Dean Penney's jury spent its third full day of deliberations on Saturday in the dean penney trial without reaching a verdict. The 12 jurors worked from around 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. at the Corner Brook, N.L., courthouse and remained sequestered after Wednesday evening.

Corner Brook Courthouse Deliberations

The jury is weighing first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter or not guilty in the case tied to the disappearance of Penney's estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney. She was last seen on Nov. 30, 2016, in St. Anthony.

The jurors asked two questions on Friday, including a request to watch the unedited versions of Penney's conversations with an undercover RCMP officer posing as an organized crime boss. The two videos total about eight hours, and Penney confessed to killing his wife in both.

RCMP Sting Recordings

The taped conversations sat at the center of the trial. The versions shown in court had the man's face blurred to protect his identity, while the defence argued the confessions were lies made up by Penney to get out of a tense situation.

That argument was built around the four-year covert RCMP investigation known as a Mr. Big sting, which ended with Penney's arrest in December 2023. The defence said he was intimidated by the organization and told them what he thought they wanted to hear.

Jury Questions And Deadlock

The jury also asked for definitions of coercion and coercive impact, a sign it is working through how to assess the recorded statements. The jurors are staying at a Corner Brook-area hotel with no TVs, phones or radios in their rooms while they continue deliberating.

For now, the case remains in the jury room. The panel's next step is to keep weighing whether the recorded confessions, the defence's pressure argument and the rest of the evidence support guilt on the highest charge, a lesser verdict or acquittal.