(Bloomberg) — Jurors in the Elizabeth Holmes fraud trial were told to work through an impasse in their deliberations after telling a judge they were struggling to reach a consensus on three of the 11 charges against the Theranos Inc. founder.
“We are unable to come to a unanimous verdict on three of the counts,” the 12-member jury said Monday in a note to U.S. District Judge Edward Davila that was read out in a California court. It’s not clear which counts the jury is unable to reach agreement on, but a unanimous verdict is required for either conviction or acquittal on each count.
The judge asked the jury, which is in its seventh full day of deliberations, to keep going. He said his instructions were “not meant to rush you or pressure you on agreeing on a verdict” and “there is no hurry.” The jurors sat through the three-month trial and heard from dozens of witnesses in the case.
If the jury is unable to reach a verdict on all the counts, the judge may accept a partial verdict on the counts the jury did agree on. The judge would then declare a mistrial on the other charges, leaving the prosecutors to decide whether to retry Holmes on those counts.
The panel of eight men and four women must decide whether Holmes, 37, is guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges filed in 2018, the same year that her blood-testing startup collapsed after previously reaching a valuation of $9 billion. Holmes is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.
Holmes didn’t say anything as she left the courthouse in downtown San Jose.
Read More: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos
Holmes is charged with defrauding Theranos investors and patients.
Jurors have been deliberating three days a week since Dec. 20, with time off for the holidays. So far, they’ve sent three notes to the judge. They asked to rehear a recording of a 2013 conference call Holmes held with investors, and the judge refused their request to take their jury instructions home before rendering a verdict.
(Updates with previous jury notes.)
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