After more than 10 hours of deliberation, a jury was left hung in the trial of Donte Gilmer, charged with killing two women in November 2021 and shooting at two others months before.
Gilmer’s defense attorney, John Thebes, said members of the jury deliberated until after 9 p.m. Friday before resuming Monday morning. By noon, they still couldn’t come to an agreement.
Mr. Thebes said a retrial is scheduled for Nov. 8, still before Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Linda Jennings.
Gilmer, 38, first was indicted in July 2021, on two counts of felonious assault and two weapons charges, all in the June 28, 2021, attempted shooting of a woman and her 5-year-old daughter in a car on Vance Street.
Then, in January 2022, Gilmer was indicted on two counts each of aggravated murder, murder, and felonious assault, as well as one count of aggravated robbery. Each charge came with a firearm specification and a repeat violent offender specification.
On Nov. 7, 2021, Laura Luckey and Natasha Carlisle were found dead in a car on Vance Street, one block west of where the June shooting allegedly took place. Both had been shot multiple times in the head. Before the trial began, the jury members were taken to the 700 and 800 blocks of Vance Street to view the scenes.
The state’s case revolved around three major facts: the shell casings from both the June shooting and the November deaths matched, Gilmer was the last person to see the women alive, and he acknowledged feeling angry about the loss of his ring to a Toledo police detective, assistant Lucas County prosecutor Rebecca Facey said in her opening statement.
Gilmer’s trial began on July 26, lasting four days before being sent to the jury.
First Published August 1, 2022, 5:18 p.m.
