Tiffany Stevens Murder-for-Hire Trial Declared a Mistrial

A mistrial was declared in the Tiffany Stevens court trial over whether or not she tried to arrange for the murder of her ex-husband, Eric Stevens of Simsbury.

At 4:30 p.m., Judge Edward J. Mullarkey received a note from the jury. After looking it over, he asked both prosecution and defense attorneys what they would suggest he do. Both Stevens’ defense attorney, Hubert Santos, and prosecutor Anthony Bochicchio said declaring a mistrial was the proper course, according to an article in the Hartford Courant.

Jurors had sent a note to the judge early in the afternoon, saying that they were having difficulty reaching a decision, although they didn’t say that they were deadlocked. At that point, Bochicchio suggested the judge have them deliberate longer because they hadn’t been deliberating for a very long time — since late in the day on Wednesday, all day Thursday and Friday morning. Mullarkey told the jury to keep working at it, according to the Courant article.

On Thursday, the jury also heard a recording of the earlier testimony of a psychiatrist, Dr. Seth Feuerstein, who had been hired by the defense, the Courant reported.

Late Friday afternoon, Mullarkey dismissed the jurors.