Mistrial declared in murder case

Jurors deadlocked over whether a husband killed his wife in fit of passion or whether he planned it

RALEIGH -- A murder case ended in a mistrial Wednesday when jurors couldn't decide whether a man planned to strangle his estranged wife with a seat belt or whether he committed the crime in a fit of passion.

Michael Massenburg, 39, will remain at Central Prison in Raleigh while Wake County prosecutors decide when they will retry him.

A conviction of first-degree murder, which prosecutors pushed for, would have meant life in prison. A conviction on second-degree murder, which does not require premeditation, could mean as few as 12 years in state prison.

Massenburg is accused of wrapping a car seat belt twice around the neck of Dujuana "Toni" Massenburg on May 16, 2005, and strangling her with it after he chased her through a North Raleigh neighborhood in his car.

The couple had been separated for several months. Toni Massenburg, who worked with day cares to ensure they had proper resources for special needs children, had taken out a restraining order against her husband two months earlier when he had choked her until she told him she would return to the home they shared, according to court testimony.

Testimony presented in court this week also indicated that Michael Massenburg, a construction foreman, repeatedly called her in the hours before her death and told fellow church members that she was a sinner because she wanted to separate from him.

The couple's three children, now ages 9, 8 and 6, live with Toni Massenburg's sister.

Toni Massenburg's family, who previously said the trial that began Monday was as emotional as the 34-year-old woman's funeral, were upset at Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr.'s decision Wednesday afternoon to declare a mistrial. They declined to comment, as did Michael Massenburg's immediate relatives.

Jurors had spent less than three hours deliberating Wednesday when they told Manning that they couldn't come to a decision. Six members thought Massenburg was guilty of second-degree murder, and six thought he should be convicted of first-degree murder, two of the jurors said after a mistrial was declared.

Massenburg's attorney, Dewey O'Kelley, asked jurors to consider second-degree murder, pointing out Massenburg's decision to stay near his wife's body and declare to arriving firefighters and paramedics that he killed her as evidence that he wasn't in a rational, cool state of mind.

Howard Cummings, a Wake assistant district attorney, described Massenburg as a controlling, enraged husband who couldn't handle the thought of his wife leaving him and knew what he was doing when he chased her and took the time to strangle her.

"She's trying to make her new life away from this man," Cummings said. "He wanted to control her and make her decisions for her."

Jurors said they had wanted to issue a verdict but couldn't agree.

"We felt like there was so much high emotion," said Judy Lamanna, a juror who wanted to convict on second-degree murder.

The jury's foreman, Mike Walker, who leaned toward a conviction of first-degree murder, said that no amount of discussion would have changed the impasse.

"We would have liked to have come to a decision," he said.

Massenburg's defense took a turn during the course of his trial. Kevin Byrd, who was hired by Massenburg and said he spends only a small part of his legal practice defending felony criminal cases, began the trial by implying that Toni Massenburg's death was accidental, despite his client's confession that he had committed the crime.

O'Kelley, who was court-appointed, indicated in a previous request for a mistrial that Byrd had no evidence to back up his legal strategy.