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Jury Sends Judge Note In Subway Push Trial

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - It is apparently not smooth sailing for the jury deliberting in the trial of a man charged with shoving a woman into the side of a moving New York City subway train.

WCBS 880's Irene Cornell On The Case

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The jury Thursday sent a note to the judge asking, "What do we do if we believe that we have reached an impasse?"

The judge told them to start fresh, look at the facts, and keep trying.

Their difficulty is in the fact that the accused, Jose Rojas, was extremely drunk when Ute Linhart was pushed into that moving train.

He'd been picking fights with people on the platform.

Even his drinking buddy had walked far away from him, and nobody saw the actual push.

So was it attempted murder, a crime that requires a finding of intent?

The defense pictures it as a stumbling, drunken kind of accident.

Ute Linhart told the jury that's impossible, that the man first stared into her face, then went behind her and gave her a hard push with two hands on her back.

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