A perjury charge was filed Monday against a juror, who a judge said lied to him about visiting the scene of a killing and caused a mistrial in a murder trial last week.
Taniqra R. Payne was arrested Monday afternoon, said Sgt. Brian Humphreys with the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office. Perjury is a felony offense, he said, while Payne was waiting to be arraigned in magistrate court.
Last Thursday, Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King asked prosecutors to investigate charging Payne, after declaring a mistrial in the trial of Tremaine Jackson. Prosecutors assigned the investigation to Kanawha deputies.
Jackson is charged with first-degree murder in a shooting death last December, near Littlepage Terrace, on Charleston's West Side.
Jurors had been deliberating for nearly three days last week when the judge told lawyers that Payne had been seen where Brian Rogers was shot.
Rogers' father was nearby, saw Payne, and took a photograph of her, the judge said. When King asked Payne, she initially lied about being there, according to what the judge told lawyers.
Payne had gone to the shooting scene and conducted her own investigation and told other jurors about what she had discovered, the judge said.
Jackson's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Richard Holicker said he reluctantly moved for a mistrial.
A status conference in the case is set for Thursday.
Jackson allegedly shot Rogers over a $3,000 heroin debt. Jackson says he was not the shooter and that Charleston police coerced his video-taped confession.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.