SAGINAW, MI — A jury will return Tuesday to continue deliberating whether Donte R. Houston is guilty of murder in the 2010 death of Elizabeth Taybron.
The jury began deliberating about noon Friday and continued until about 5 p.m. but was unable to reach a verdict. Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson had them return at 9 a.m. today to continue, and the jurors did so until about noon, when they were released for the day.
The jurors are to return at 9 a.m. Tuesday to continue deliberating.
Houston, 21, is charged with an open count of murder as well as assault with intent to murder and four firearm offenses in connection with Taybron's death.
Taybron was shot in the back of the head June 12, 2010, as she stood near Oakwood and Webber on Saginaw's South Side. Testimony from Houston's trial last week showed that he stood at the intersection of Maplewood and Webber, two blocks east from Taybron, and fired a shot at Duran Lowe, with whom he almost fought three days prior, who was standing across Maplewood.
Taybron died Dec. 21, 2010, three days after her 71st birthday. Saginaw County Medical Examiner Kanu Virani testified that he ruled Taybron's death a homicide, saying that Taybron's injury from the shooting was the primary cause of her death. A “serious case of emphysema” contributed to her death,
Houston's attorney, Jeffrey J. Rupp, said during closing arguments that Taybron died because she removed her tracheostomy tube and that her condition, which had been improving, quickly became grave.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Houston would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Assault with intent to murder, which prosecutors initially charged Houston with before Taybron died, carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.