POMEROY — A Meigs County jury deciding the fate of Paula Rizer found the defendant not guilty on the charge of aggravated murder with a firearm, but deadlocked on the lesser charge of murder.

Rizer was accused of shooting and killing her husband Kenneth Rizer, Sr., on April 3 of this year at their Portland home. The jury heard testimony in the case for nearly a week, including two days of an emotional account by Paula Rizer of the events that led up to the shooting.

Jurors reported to Meigs County Common Pleas Court Judge Fred W. Crow III on Tuesday evening that they were unable to reach a verdict on the lesser charge of murder with no probability of agreeing. The jury forewoman told Crow the vote was deadlocked at 11-1, which received an audible reaction from those gathered in the courtroom.

Meigs County Prosecuting Attorney Colleen Williams told Crow she wished to retry Rizer. Crow said he would set the retrial at the earliest possible date, possibly in the first or second week of December.

Crow ordered that Rizer be remanded into the custody of the Meigs County Sheriff’s Office. Meigs County Sheriff Robert Beegle, his deputies and two officers each from the Pomeroy and Middleport police departments provided extra security in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

Jurors received the case late Monday afternoon, deliberated until 11 p.m. and then returned at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The verdict of not guilty on the aggravated murder charge and deadlock over the murder charge were read at around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In order to be found guilty of the charge of aggravated murder, jurors had to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Rizer acted with prior calculation and design and purpose causing the death of Kenneth Rizer, Sr.

Williams told The Daily Sentinel: “We’re obviously disappointed but we’ll be ready to go again at retrial.”