Judge Declares Mistrial After Jury Reaches Impasse In Murder Trial

An Oklahoma County jury was in deliberations for six hours Monday but could not reach a verdict against a man accused of killing a former Oklahoma City high school basketball star.

Prince Augustine Ordu, 27, was tried on counts of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit a felony. The judge declared a mistrial after the jury reached an impasse. 

Ordu is accused of ordering an armed robbery that led to the death of Anthony Hartfield Jr. in February 2013.

One juror told News 9 he and two other jurors could not reach a guilty verdict.

It is up to prosecutors to determine whether or not to retry Ordu with a new jury.

On Monday, both prosecutors and the defense team presented their closing arguments to a jury which ultimately could not determine guilt one way or the other.

Hartfield was a former US Grant High School student and basketball player who went on to play college basketball, and who was visiting family and friends at a home in northeast Oklahoma City when he was shot and killed.

Court documents revealed Ordu is accused of ordering the armed robbery and that he was in jail when he did it.

Three other suspects, Deandre Smith, 26, Tywan Sellars, 27, and Nico Price, 27, are also charged in the crime and are the ones accused of actually carrying out the armed robbery and committing the homicide.

Both Smith and Price were convicted in May of last year, after Smith pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and burglary. Price pleaded guilty to accessory to murder. Court records show Smith received a suspended life sentence for the murder count and 20 years suspended sentence on the burglary. Price received a 20-year sentence.

Tywan Sellars is yet to go to trial on the murder charge. His trial is set for February of 2017. 

The defense attorneys representing Ordu brought up questions about the cell phones, claiming there were several phone numbers in the phone records. They claim that calls into question whether it was really Ordu who ordered the robbery that led to the death of Hartfield, since Ordu didn't have a phone.

But in their closing response, prosecutors called this a glimpse into the "dark, seedy, slimy underbelly of society" of how gangs operate.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Ordu's own mother claimed the phone with one of the phone numbers, and stated it was Ordu's. Prosecutors also told the jury about other evidence linking a Telmate phone account that matches with Ordu, even with a picture.

Prosecutors claim Ordu was running his criminal operation from jail, and ordered the robbery at the house where Hartfield was visiting and where he was shot and killed.