A mistrial was declared Friday in the trial of a Galveston bird lover accused of killing a cat because the jury was hopelessly deadlocked.

So, at the Galveston County courthouse, what was supposed to be judgment day for Jim Stevenson yielded no judgment at all.

“I’m going to grant that motion for a mistrial,” came the words from Judge Frank Carmona.

After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury was hopelessly deadlocked.

Was Stevenson surprised it went this far? “Spending $250,000 dollars over a wounded feral cat that was chasing an endangered species, yeah, seemed like it went a little far to me,” said Stevenson.

The cat belonged to a colony that lives below the San Luis Pass toll bridge. Whether they’re feral, depends upon whom you ask.

Bridge worker John Newland has provided food, water and bedding to them for years.

And they come when he calls.

“I feel like if he gets away with this, it will be open season,” said Newland.

Ultimately, the question of whether the cat was owned by Newland or simply feral is what stumped the jury, which split 8 to four in favor of guilty.

11 News: What did you want the verdict to be? 

“Guilty,” said juror Lydia Abuisi. “Because that was the man charge guilty, cruelty to animals.”

11 News: Are you going to go back there with your gun anytime soon?

“Get real,” replied Stevenson.

GCDN

Jim Stevenson

Stevenson is president of the Galveston Ornithological Society. He walked out a free man, and it's not clear if he will be retried.

One jury member said the panel continuously polled itself and could not come to an agreement on guilt.

Galveston County Assistant District Attorney Joel Bennett said they would not retry the case.

The toll booth worker had claimed he had been feeding and caring for the cat and that he had considered the animal his.

However, defense attorney Tad A. Nelson has said the animal was feral and had no owner.

The Texas Penal Code has 10 definitions for cruelty to animals. The one that applies to Stevenson’s case is anyone who seriously injures an animal “belonging to another without legal authority or the owner’s effective consent.”

If jurors find the cat was feral, or wild, then it had no owner and that law did not apply to Stevenson’s actions. However, if they find the cat was the bridge worker’s pet, the charge could carry a jail term of 180 days to two years, as well as a fine of up to $10,000.

While Stevenson did not testify on his own behalf during the trial, jurors did hear from the defendant. Prosecutors Paige Santell and Rebecca Klaren played Stevenson’s taped grand-jury testimony, in which he said he never would have shot the cat had he known it to be someone’s pet.

Jurors also heard prosecutor Bill Reed on the tape. Reed questioned Stevenson’s apparent suggestion that the bridge worker had planted food and toys under the bridge to give the impression the cat was a pet. Reed also challenged Stevenson’s credibility, saying he did not see the food. Nelson had said in opening statements that geotubes placed to stem beach erosion had blocked the food from Stevenson’s view.

While Reed handled the prosecution of the case only as far as the grand jury, he did play a role in the trial as a witness called to authenticate the tape of Stevenson’s testimony.

The cross-examination between him and Nelson was frequently contentious, with Nelson asking Reed about his questioning process and about paperwork Stevenson had provided prosecutors about feral cats. The paperwork appeared to have vanished, Nelson said.

Police officer John Bertolino was on his way to the San Luis Pass, where a caller had reported hearing shots fired, when he stopped a van with a Galveston Ornithological Society logo on its side near 15 Mile Road. Bertolino found a. 22-caliber rifle in the van.

One of the toll-bridge workers was following the van and later told police the van’s occupant had shot a cat, which suffered a severed spine. The cat died while Bertolino was taking it to a veterinarian.

Stevenson discussed the incident after his release. His account appeared on the Texbirds online message board.

He wrote that, the night before his arrest, he saw a cat “creeping up on three snowy and two piping plovers and several sanderlings.”