A mistrial was declared Monday after a Circuit Court jury could not reach a verdict on whether State Department special agent Christopher Deedy should be convicted or acquitted of second-degree murder for a 2011 shooting in Waikiki.

After the mistrial was declared, Deedy hugged his attorney Brook Hart.

Hart said Deedy told him, "‘I love you,’ and that I did a good job."

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn scheduled a hearing for Friday to set the date for a retrial, which would likely come next year.

The eight men and four women were not able to reach a verdict after about five days of deliberations and 20 days of testimony in one of the state’s most highly publicized trials.

Some legal observers said the jury encountered a tough task in making the all-or-nothing decision to acquit or convict on the murder charge without the option of a lesser charge of manslaughter.

But jurors left the courthouse without commenting on the deadlock or why they could not reach a verdict.

Janice Futa, the city deputy prosecutor handling the trial, said she had no regrets that the manslaughter option wasn’t given to the jury and said she won’t push for it in the retrial.

Deedy, 29, of Arlington, Va., was accused of the death of Kollin Elderts, a 23-year-old Kailua man, early Nov. 5, 2011, at the McDonald’s Kuhio Avenue restaurant.

The prosecution tried to prove that an intoxicated Deedy escalated a confrontation and shot the unarmed Elderts without justification. Deedy testified he fired his 9 mm Glock in self-defense to fend off Elderts, who had attacked him and grabbed for the gun.

Deedy was on Oahu to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference that drew world leaders and President Barack Obama.

Futa said she was "very disappointed" with the mistrial, but said prosecutors saw no evidence to support the manslaughter option.

Deedy’s attorney said he pleaded not guilty, is not guilty and that the jury didn’t find him guilty.

"He has another day in court to deal with these charges and will have an opportunity then to put his position forward," Hart said.

Hart said Deedy will be returning to his home in Virginia and resuming work with the State Department. Deedy has been free on $250,000 bail.

The State Department had no comment about the mistrial, but is continuing an internal investigation of Deedy, according to a department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.

She said Deedy will return to his non-law-enforcement administrative desk job pending the outcome of the investigation and the retrial.

Family members and supporters for both Deedy and Elderts who sat in the gallery on opposite sides of the aisle left the courtroom without commenting.

"It’s probably the most difficult experience that any of them have ever had as a family," Hart said about his client’s relatives. "They’re just trying, I think, to wrap their arms around the notion that Christopher Deedy is still a free man, and he should be."

Deedy’s parents, Bill and Sue Deedy, and his wife, Stephanie, were among those sitting in the front row behind Deedy throughout the trial.

Elderts’ father, Kendall Elderts, and stepmother, Jenell, and other relatives and supporters sat behind the prosecution.

Michael Green, the lawyer for Elderts’ parents, who have a pending lawsuit against Deedy, said Elderts’ stepmother wanted a resolution in the case.

He said she was left in shock, depression and pain.

"She is just besides herself, reliving the death of her son," Green said.

Green said Elderts’ family would have liked the jury to have had the manslaughter option.

"They wanted the jury to have every possibility to evaluate the facts of this case along with the law that applies to it," Green said.

In establishing jury instructions earlier this month, Ahn decided not to give the jury the manslaughter option, despite a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that a lesser offense should be submitted to a jury when there’s a "rational basis" for it.

The Supreme Court frowned upon what it called the "winner-take-all" approach, saying it undermines a jury returning a verdict that fits the facts of the case.

In her decision, Ahn said neither the defense nor prosecution asked for the lesser offense and that she could not find any evidence of manslaughter — that Deedy recklessly killed Elderts.

Futa said Monday the prosecution agrees with Ahn that there was no evidence to support the manslaughter charge.

She said nothing will change in a retrial.

"The facts are the facts and the law is the law," she said. "It’s just whether another jury can reach a verdict."

Futa contends she was able to deliver her message to the jury.

"They were very hardworking in this case," she said.

Futa said she expects the defense to file motions to dismiss the murder charge.

"But we feel strongly that the right thing to do is have a new trial," she said.

Hart said he didn’t believe there was a need, or "manifest necessity," to declare a mistrial.

Hart and his co-counsel Karl Blanke of Virginia opposed the manslaughter option.

A second-degree murder charge carries a life term with possibility of parole. A manslaughter conviction would have also carried a hefty prison term of up to 20 years.

Hart said it’s a "good question" as to whether the jury might have reached a verdict on manslaughter.

"It would only be a guess, but usually in these matters where there are other options, sometimes people reach agreement," he said.

Hart said he doesn’t know whether Deedy will retain him in a retrial.

He said the judge found no evidence for the manslaughter charge and that "the facts aren’t likely to change."

The trial, which spanned five weeks, featured the repeated playing of the McDonald’s surveillance video that captured the shooting scene, but there was conflicting testimony about what the video images showed.

One key difference was that Deedy said he fired the fatal shot when Elderts was on top of him on the floor and punching him. The prosecution maintained that the shot was fired earlier in their struggle when both were still standing.

The witnesses also gave different accounts. Elderts’ friend Shane Medeiros and other witnesses portrayed a drunken Deedy who harassed Elderts, kicked him and then fired three shots, including the fatal one.

Deedy said he drank about four beers, but wasn’t drunk. He said he approached Elderts, who had been bothering a customer, and tried to calm Elderts before the Kailua man became enraged and attacked him.

Deedy said he showed Elderts his identification, while Medeiros and other prosecution witnesses said they didn’t hear Deedy identify himself or see him show his credentials.

Ahn initially announced Monday afternoon that the jury had reached an impasse, then held a bench conference when Hart told her that the defense was not ready to accept a hung jury. The jury was not in the courtroom and the conference was transcribed by a court reporter with the lawyers huddled around the judge.

After about 20 minutes, Ahn cleared the courtroom and held a closed hearing.

When Ahn reopened the courtroom about 10 minutes later, she polled the jury on whether they agreed there was an impasse, and declared the mistrial.

The judge did not say why she needed to hold those proceedings shielded from the public.

Both Futa and Hart declined to say what was discussed during the conference and closed hearing.

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Star-Advertiser writers Marcel Honoré and Nelson Daranciang contributed to this report.