State trooper Dane Davenport was found innocent of five of nine counts of child sexual abuse Friday night.

The jurors in Warren County Circuit Court also reported being deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the remaining four counts against the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrolman, and presiding Judge Isadore Patrick declared a mistrial on those.

“We’re thrilled to death that the citizens of this community found Mr. Davenport not guilty,” said John Zelbst, Davenport’s lead attorney. “Always have faith in the jury system. Always have faith in the jury. I do not know, at this time, enough details to really comment on the four (counts) that are hung up. Of course, we would like this fight to end, in this courthouse, and be over.”

Zelbst sat with his head in his hands and a tense Davenport nodded slightly as each “not guilty” verdict was read. Afterward, Davenport hugged the members of his defense team and sang a hymn with family and friends.

“They did not forsake me at all,” Davenport, 47, said of his supporters. “God has taken care of every need I’ve had through this. The jury — I thank them for their hard work this week. I know it’s tough. I just pray that we can get all this behind us, and everybody can move on with their lives.”

The family and friends of his accusers — two teens who had testified this week that he raped and molested them over a period of eight years — heard the verdict and mistrial ruling in silence, and Patrick dismissed them from the courtroom, saying he wanted to clear the courthouse in an orderly manner.

The prosecution team, special assistants to the Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, which tried the case because Davenport is a state employee indicted in two counties, were not available for comment, but the AG issued a statement through a spokesman Friday night.

“It was our prosecutor’s duty to present the victims’ case after a Warren County Grand Jury issued an indictment by finding that there was probable cause for the defendant to stand trial,” said Hood. “We will have to talk to the victims and review our options before deciding what our next step will be.”

In their final arguments before jury deliberations, both attorneys reviewed the testimony of witnesses on both sides and showed how it supported their separate claims of Davenport’s guilt or innocence.

Prosecutor Stan Alexander called it “the worst case” he has ever prosecuted, and told jurors they had a chance to make it a “day of reckoning” for the defendant, and punish him.

But Zelbst countered that the evidence he and his assistants, Chandra Holmes Ray and Michael Cupit, provided showed there was more than reasonable doubt that Davenport was guilty.

Jurors began deliberating around 2:15 p.m. and were asked to return nine separate verdicts of “guilty” or “not guilty.” For each, four to six separate allegations, including time and place of the incident, had to be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” to bring back a guilty verdict.

When they re-entered the courtroom at 7 Friday night, Patrick asked if more time was needed, and one of the jurors said no, they had been deadlocked on the last four counts without any change for about four hours and were unable to agree.

Specifically, Davenport was acquitted on four counts of sexual battery of a child under 14, each of which carried a possible life sentence, and one count of fondling a child under 16, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

He remains subject to prosecution on four additional counts of fondling, but it wasn’t clear if prosecutors would try the trooper a third time.

The trial, Davenport’s fourth in about 18 months, began Monday with jury selection and continued with three days of sometimes angry, emotional testimony — two by the state and one by the defense — and the final day of summations and deliberations.

Davenport’s first trial on the charges in Warren County, in September 2008, ended in a mistrial when jurors reported being deadlocked. He was acquitted of charges he had molested one of the two teens in Oktibbeha County by a jury there, after a previous mistrial.

Davenport, 407 Warren St., was indicted and arrested in January 2008. He remains on unpaid administrative leave from the MHSP, where he had served since 1987.

Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com