The jury in the case of a bigoted Brooklyn barber charged with spewing kerosene, bullets and profanity in an East Village wine bar has deadlocked after 2 ½ weeks of deliberations.
The heated jury negotiations sometimes stretched until midnight, indicating that the panelists thought they were close to reaching a verdict in the case of Steven Johnson, 37.
But late Tuesday, the jurors told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that they were hopelessly deadlocked.
Carro ordered Johnson held without bail because of the violent nature of the crime.
He’ll face a new trial in January.
During his trial, Johnson, who is black, did not dispute that he was the gunman who shot three people on an East Village street in June 2002 and then terrorized nine men and six women at Bar Veloce nearby – cursing the white patrons and spewing racial epithets.
Johnson sprayed the bar with kerosene and menaced the cowering customers by flicking a disposable lighter and threatening to set the place ablaze, prosecutors said.
The shooting victims, who were all white, survived, and Johnson never lit the lighter in the bar.
Defense lawyers argued that Johnson was so mentally unstable that he could not be held responsible.
Prosecutors played tapes of Johnson allegedly giving himself a pep talk before his rampage.
“Get ready to pull your guns on these crackers, son,” he snarled into a tape recorder, according to the prosecution. “Don’t have no pity.”