The jury was seated and the trial was in progress.  James Capell, 42, was on trial in the Hamilton County courthouse for alleged domestic violence and felonious assault.  The trial was in its infancy, with both sides making opening statements, when one of the jurors stood up and announced to the court that she was a witness to the crime in question.

The judge, of course, immediately declared a mistrial.  As it turns out, there was an anonymous 911 call made concerning Capell’s assault on his girlfriend in Cincinnati, Ohio.  The person who made that anonymous call was Najah Johnson-Riddle, the juror who stood up in the middle of the trial and announced she was actually a witness to the crime.  Both sides of the case knew about the anonymous 911 call, but nobody had connected the call to Johnson-Riddle.  Prosecutors plan to convene a new jury and have a new trial for Capell, this time with witness testimony.

It’s like something out of a bad courtroom drama, isn’t it?  How often do you ever see anyone disturb a court case in real life, let alone announce they’re actually the secret star witness for the prosecution?  It makes me wonder how the witness got through the pretrial interview process without connecting the crime she reported to the criminal in question.

Tags: Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ohio, James Capell, Najah Johnson-Riddle, juror in assault trial was witness to the crime, unusual events, law and order, crime and punishment, juror turns witness for prosecution, domestic violence

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