Schurr juror: One holdout kept former officer from being acquitted

Yahoo

22-05-2025

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A member of the jury that couldn't reach a verdict in the Christopher Schurr murder trial said race never came up in the deliberations, that Schurr helped himself by taking the stand and that there was one main holdout that kept the former officer from being acquitted.
That holdout, he told Target 8 in an exchange of emails, was the jury foreperson — the only Black jury member on the 12-person jury. Schurr's defense team confirmed that.
The jury could not reach a verdict after four days and 21 hours of deliberations, leading to a . Prosecutor Chris Becker on Thursday announced he would not retry the case that has divided the community.
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Becker has said the jury voted 10-2 in favor of acquittal. The defense attorney said it was 11-1 for acquittal.
In an exchange of emails with Target 8, a member of the jury wrote that the foreperson 'claimed there was no way that they could see Schurr actually fearing for his life' as he and Patrick Lyoya struggled over the officer's Taser.
Schurr, who is white, encountered Lyoya, who is Black, during a traffic stop in April 2022.
The juror, one of three men on the jury, said it wouldn't have made sense to retry Schurr, as 'they are going to have a real tough time finding 12 people who would unanimously vote guilty in Kent County based on majority demographics alone.'
The 12-member jury was made up of nine women and three men. Ten were white, one Hispanic and one, the foreperson, was Black.
The juror who spoke to Target 8 didn't want to be identified.
'Ultimately,' he wrote, 'I would like to avoid having my name or any personal information attached to this as I'm not looking for that kind of exposure.'
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The jury deliberated for parts of four days before announcing it couldn't reach a verdict on May 8 on either the murder charge or manslaughter. The juror said the final vote was either 11-1 or 10-2 for acquittal on the second-degree murder charge.
'We didn't even really discuss manslaughter much because of the fact (that) we couldn't agree on the primary charge,' the juror wrote.
Either way, it led the judge to declare a mistrial.
Target 8 tried talking to other members of the jury: some could not be reached, some declined comment and others did not respond to our requests for interviews.
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The death of Patrick Lyoya led to marches and protests and visits by civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton.
But the juror said race was not part of the deliberations.
'For what it's worth,' he wrote, 'even with a diverse jury, the white/Black narrative was never something that was even considered in our conversations. It was more about the training/policies than potential political tension.'
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Three members of the Grand Rapids Police Department, including two captains, testified that Schurr followed his training and department policies.
The juror also wrote that the helped sway some.
'I do believe, based on being around all of the other jurors and with discussion with them throughout the trial, that Chris taking the stand provided clarity for some of those that remained on the fence about their vote,' he wrote.
Schurr testified that he feared for his life as he and Lyoya fought over his Taser.
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