Jurors in the child abuse trial of Atlantic City's mayor will return Thursday, after failing to reach a verdict following the first full day of deliberations.
The jury had several questions since they were given the case.
In the last note sent around 2:45 p.m., they asked what would happen if they could not agree on a count.
The count they may have issues with was not specified.
"You have not been deliberating for that long," Judge Joseph Levin told the jurors, who have been in deliberations for about 4½ hours. "I'm asking that you continue your deliberations."
He told them they always can send out more questions, which they have done twice before since they have been discussions.
Small is accused of assaulting and threatening his daughter, along with ignoring alleged abuse by her mother, Atlantic City Schools Superintendent La'Quetta Small.
He also faces a charge of witness tampering for allegedly trying to get the girl to change her story of being knocked unconscious by her father during an argument Jan. 13, 2024.
The questions are related to the endangering charge, along with witness tampering.
"What is the legal definition of exercising a minimum degree of care?" the question sent out at about 12:15 p.m. asked.
That question led to the judge deciding to re-charge the jury on endangering, reading from a more complete definition for that paragraph of the instruction.
"It's very vague," Judge Joseph Levin told the attorneys of the original wording. "We're correcting it now."
When the jury came back in, he told them the would not have realized the issue if they had not brought it to his attention, and gave them credit for reading through things carefully.
He took back the three copies of the original charging documents to cross out the fixed paragraph. He opted not to take the pages completely, since the jurors had made notes on them.
The jurors also sent a note saying: "Tampering with the witness: What happened in September of 2024?"
Small could be seen shrugging when that was read, seeming to acknowledge his defense's argument that the charge should have been dropped before it reached the jury, since his daughter could not recall what her father told her.
The state originally alleged Small told his daughter to "twist up" her story after he and his wife were indicted. That led to the separate tampering charge.
Small has insisted he merely told his daughter to tell the truth.
Levin told the jurors that would "have to rely on your own recollections."
"I'm not going to tell them the evidence," he told the attorneys before the jurors were brought back in.
The jurors are being sequestered during deliberations, so they opted to work through lunch.
Deliberation began Tuesday for about an hour before breaking for the day.
They got a late start to getting back to it Wednesday, first having to hear the answers to their questions given to the judge Tuesday, and having recordings of an argument between Small and his then-16-year-old daughter in which he threatens to "earth slam her down the stairs."
The Jan. 3, 2024 argument began when Small insisted on driving his daughter to school, while she insisted on taking the bus.
The audio was recorded by the girl's boyfriend, E.L., while they were on a call.
"(J.S.) try me," he is heard saying in the first of six clips played covering the argument. "Don't make me hurt you."
"That's all you do," she tells him.
During the back and forth, both Small's son and his mother-in-law — who lives with the family — can be heard chiming in.
"Mind you business," the girl tells her younger brother. "Get ready for school."
When her grandmother tells her to go with him, the girl responds: "I don't want to be in a car with him. I don't want to be near him."
"You don't have no say so," her grandmother replies.
The girl also is heard asking her father what will happen when she gets to school.
"OK, tell them. I don't care," he replies. "What they gonna do to me? What they gonna do to me?"
He also calls her dumb, to which she replies that she isn't.
When he tells her she's not going to school, and refers to her as a dropout, she counters: "I'm not a drop out. I'm far from it."
In addition to asking for the replay of the audio, the jurors asked the judge to "simplify" the difference between simple assault and aggravated assault.
The defense had argued against even allowing the jury to be able to find Small guilty of the lesser charge of simple assault if they did not find aggravated assault.
Both sides argued over how to explain that.
After the judge clarified the difference, he also re-read the law concerning corporal punishment, which was done after the defense requested a sidebar.
The jury also asked when the Smalls first found text messages of a sexual nature between their daughter and her boyfriend, E.L.
That is when they became more concerned about the relationship, according to the defense, who has insisted Small was a father trying to protect his daughter in what he saw as a dangerous and abusive relationship.
Levin explained to them that Small testified it was November or December of 2023, but that those texts were deleted. Texts the jurors heard were from were after the alleged broom attack, but "similar in nature."
The jury went back to deliberations just before 11 a.m.
It's difficult to tell what the jury's mindset is based upon the questions.
In arguing wording for simple assault versus aggravated assault, Assistant Prosecutor Chris D'Esposito said that "it's clear they're debating between the two."
But, he added, that the questions are unclear.
"Have you ever seen a clear question from a jury?" the judge asked, adding that it was because jurors are not used to being in the legal system.
