Gary Kitchings, a former Uber driver charged with raping a passenger he picked up at SunFest in 2017, was found not guilty on one charge in a new trial Friday, but four other charges are still up in the air.
Attorney for Gary Kitchings told WPBF 25 that Kitchings was found not guilty of one count of sexual battery with a deadly weapon or physical force.
In a previous trial in 2018, Gary Kitchings was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
In 2020, the conviction was overturned by an appeals court after the defense argued that Kitchings original statement to police, where he stated the sex was consensual, was not played to the jury in its entirety.
The second trial began May 23 and various witnesses testified, including other women Kitchings picked up that night.
Jury deliberations began on Wednesday. The jury asked for a trial transcript and to relisted to the 911 call from the passenger the night of the encounter in 2017.
On Thursday, the jury asked the judge to play back a recording of the accuser’s testimony in which she described the moment of the incident.
A status check in the case is scheduled for June 14.
Full story from https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-second-trial-uber-driver-charged-raping-passenger-gary-kitchings-hung-jury/60937591