The state jury in the Christopher Deedy retrial found the U.S. State Department special agent not guilty of murder Thursday but was unable to decide whether he is guilty of any other crimes for fatally shooting Kollin Elderts in a Waikiki McDonald’s restaurant in 2011.

Deedy’s lawyer, Thomas Otake, thanked the jurors for what they did.

"And what they did in this case is they’ve acquitted agent Deedy of murder," Otake said.

Elderts family spokeswoman Kalama Niheu read a statement the family prepared in anticipation of a hung jury because she said family members are utterly devastated and unable to speak for themselves.

"Christopher Deedy is a very irresponsible, cowardly individual that took away the heartbeat of our family and forever changed us," Niheu said. "Because of the poor decisions he made that tragic night, including drinking and walking out on our Waikiki streets with a loaded personal firearm, we can never forgive him."

The statement does not address the murder acquittal.

Elderts’ parents have a lawsuit against Deedy on hold pending the outcome of Deedy’s criminal prosecution.

This was Deedy’s second trial for killing Elderts.

His first one last year ended in mistrial after that jury was unable to reach a verdict on just a murder charge. In this second trial the jurors had the opportunity to consider two kinds of manslaughter and two different assault charges as well as murder.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn acquitted Deedy of murder but found him eligible for retrial for manslaughter and assault.

Deputy Prosecutor Janice Futa said the instructions for all the different charges confused the jurors. She said she will recommend Deedy stand trial a third time.

"I believe that Kollin Elderts and his family and his friends and our community deserve that kind of justice, at least a resolution," she said. "And I think it’s been delayed for too long."

Otake said he will file legal paperwork to have the remaining charges dismissed.

"The state has had two opportunities, lengthy, costly trials, at the expense of taxpayers," he said. "They had every chance in the world, first without manslaughter, now with manslaughter, and they have not been able to obtain a conviction. And so our position is, enough is enough."

The decision on whether Deedy will stand trial a third time is up to Ahn. She has scheduled a status conference for later this month to hear from both sides.

Hawaii case law prevents the state from taking a defendant to trial repeatedly, using the same evidence, until it gets a guilty verdict. The law does not set a limit on the number of trials a defendant can stand for the same act.

The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, however, upheld last month the decision by another state judge to dismiss a murder charge against a defendant after just two trials. The jurors in both trials deadlocked 6-6.

Futa said a third trial for Deedy would not be the same as the first two.

"I think the first and second trials were very different in approach and even some facts that came out," she said. "So you can always expect that in trial."

The jurors in the latest trial deliberated about four days before informing the court Wednesday afternoon that they were unable to reach a verdict. Ahn called in the lawyers for a conference in her office to hash out a response.

After talking to the lawyers for a little over an hour, Ahn told the jurors to return to court Thursday morning and told the lawyers to arrive before the jurors to continue their discussion.

The jurors had previously sent at least a note asking the court about the applicability of the term "reckless." Recklessness is an element in one of the manslaughter charges and one of the assault charges Deedy was facing.

Otake argued that if the jurors are deadlocked, the court should ask them on what charge. If they were deadlocked on manslaughter or assault, he told Ahn, she should poll the jurors to find out whether they had found Deedy not guilty of murder.

At 11:15 a.m. Thursday, Ahn asked the jurors whether more deliberation would help them reach a verdict. The forewoman said, "Possibly."

Ahn polled the jurors and seven others agreed. Four said no.

Ahn then sent the jurors back to the deliberation room.

Two hours later the jurors informed the court that they were still unable to reach a verdict. When asked this time, they said no more deliberation will help them reach a verdict. They also said they all thought that Deedy was not guilty of murder.

Deedy, 30, is based in Washington, D.C., but was in Honolulu in 2011 to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. He was off duty and had been in Honolulu barely 12 hours when he shot Elderts, 23, in the Kuhio Avenue McDonald’s in the early-morning hours of Nov. 5.

He shot Elderts with his personal firearm, a semiautomatic pistol known as a "Baby Glock."

He testified that he shot Elderts to protect himself and his college roommate Adam Gutowski from further assault at the hands of Elderts and his friend Shane Medeiros.

The state says Deedy was drunk and started the fight with Elderts. The prosecutor also says Deedy did not identify himself as a law enforcement officer before starting the fight that ended with Elderts’ death.

Deedy said he was not drunk, showed Elderts and Medeiros his badge and told them he is a cop to stop them from picking on another customer.

Five security cameras in fixed positions inside and outside the restaurant captured on video the shooting and the events leading up to it.

Both sides made extensive use of the video in both trials to bolster their claims.

The video is subject to interpretation, however, because it does not display continuous action, but instead images taken roughly one second apart. The video also does not contain sound.

Star-Advertiser reporter Susan Essoyan contributed to this report.