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Jul 16, 2009 6:30 pm US/Eastern
Jury Goes Home Without Verdict In Noble Case
About two hours into deliberations, jurors asked a judge to clarify intent and what constitutes a disturbance
John Noble said he wanted to educate people about the right to carry firearms after Obama characterized Pennsylvanians as clinging to guns and religion
BEAVER (KDKA) ―
The jury deciding the fate of a Beaver County man accused of bringing a gun to a campaign rally for President Barack Obama last year went home without a verdict.
The judge says the jury in the trial of John Noble asked to go home because they were "frazzled."
Deliberations will resume at 9:15 a.m. Friday.
During closing arguments today, prosecutors argued that the rally "was not the time or the place to bring a firearm."
The defense, however, countered that John Noble was not breaking the law.
Noble testified that he wanted to educate people about the right to carry firearms -- after Obama characterized Pennsylvanians as clinging to guns and religion.
No one disputes that Noble had all the proper permits; but a state police trooper charged him with disrupting a public gathering.
"As long as you're not breaking the law they can't do that," Defense Attorney Stephen Colafella told the jury earlier today. "Where does it stop? Nowhere does it say you can't carry an open firearm in a public park. That rally was exactly the place for Jack Noble to do what he did."
Prosecutor Frank Martocci, however, disagreed.
"There is a time and place for everything," Martocci added. "That was not the time or place to bring a firearm to that rally. Bringing this gun to that rally is the equivalent of yelling 'fire' in a crowded movie theater."
The trial has attracted the attention of gun supporters, who have shown up at the Beaver County Courthouse.
About two hours after the jury got the case, they asked a judge to clarify intent and what constitutes a disturbance.
If jurors find him guilty of this third-degree misdemeanor, Noble could face as much as one year in jail and fines totaling $2500.
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