To blame: a grand jury foreman's errant slash of a pen.

Foreman John K. Hatton made a lunch-hour confession Tuesday that he had marked the wrong box on a document the day before, mistakenly accusing Long of second-degree murder in the Dec. 1 shooting of Peyton Strickland, a student from Durham. Superior Court Judge Ernest Fullwood reversed the charge.

Court papers showed that Hatton, 66, told Fullwood that he realized the mistake when fellow jurors called him Monday night after hearing that Long, a former New Hanover sheriff's deputy, had been indicted.

District Attorney Ben David did not return calls seeking comment, but in a statement Tuesday night, David said he planned to travel to Raleigh today to meet with senior members of the state Attorney General's Office to evaluate "all options." According to legal experts, David can ask a grand jury again to indict Long.

Neither of the two grand jury panels in New Hanover County will meet again before the end of the year.

One member of the grand jury, who voted to indict Long, said the second-degree murder charge was a steep hurdle for the district attorney.

"I think people would have been much more willing to consider involuntary manslaughter," said Sharika Hankins, 27, who added that most of the 14 jurors -- eight women and six men -- didn't think Long had acted with malice.

Strickland, 18, a Cape Fear Community College student, was shot twice and killed by a bullet to the head when UNC-Wilmington police and New Hanover deputies raided his rented home in Wilmington. They had gone there to search the house for a stolen Sony PlayStation 3 videogame console, according to court records. On Monday, David said Long mistook the hammering of a battering ram at the front door for the blast of a gun and opened fire at an unarmed Strickland through his door. David told the judge that Long's action's were reckless.

"No one else thought they were under attack," the DA said Monday.

But after listening to a State Bureau of Investigation agent describe what happened Dec. 1, only four or five members of the grand jury agreed that Long's actions amounted to second-degree murder, Hankins said Tuesday. That was at least seven votes shy of the tally needed to indict Long.

The district attorney has refused to release the SBI's report on the killing.

Tuesday's news shook two families to the core. Long's attorney said his client was ecstatic.

"Now, my client can try to get back to a normal life," said Michael McGuinness, Long's attorney. "We're trying to figure out how my client gets his money and his reputation back."

New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey fired Long, a 10-year veteran, on Friday. It's unclear whether Long can get his job back.

The Strickland family, buoyed by news of Long's criminal charge Monday, was devastated by the stunning reversal.

"Other than [the day their son died], I have not seen them as distraught as I saw them this afternoon when they found out about this," said Don Beskind, a law partner of Donald Strickland's and a close family friend.

In a joint statement Tuesday, Peyton Strickland's parents, Donald and Kathy, called on a judge to investigate what happened, and "if it shows that anyone even attempted to influence the grand jury, we trust charges of obstructing justice will be filed."

"This is bizarre," they said.

"How can an indictment one day not be an indictment the next? How could this happen? Yesterday, our son's murderer was going to have to answer for what he did. Today, we just don't know what is going on in Wilmington. We are upset, confused and searching for answers."

After an SBI agent recounted what happened the night Strickland died, Hankins thought Long had crossed the line.

"If he's been doing that kind of work for eight years, seems like he would know what the ramming of the door would sound like," Hankins said.

(Staff writer Matthew Eisley and news researchers Lamara Williams-Hackett, Brooke Cain and Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)

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