Following a hung jury and mistrial late last month in the case of Kiara Totty, charged with reckless homicide in the 2021 shooting death of Ja’Kia Battle, prosecutors have set a new trial date of Dec. 12.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A new trial has been scheduled for a Lima woman on a charge of reckless homicide after a mistrial was declared in her case last month.
A new trial for Kiara Totty is scheduled to begin Dec. 12 in the courtroom of Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed.
A jury trial for Totty was held in late October but after more than four hours of deliberation jurors announced they could not reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in the mistrial. The vote was reportedly 10-2, with little hope for a unanimous verdict. Reed subsequently discharged the jurors from their duties.
Totty was charged in connection with the 2021 shooting death of 23-year-old Ja’Kia Battle.
Evidence presented during the trial showed Totty on video explaining to investigators that Battle died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound she sustained on Oct. 18, 2021, while at Totty’s home on Edgewood Drive. During an interview at the Allen County Sheriff’s Office on the night of the shooting, the 34-year-old defendant told investigators that Battle — with whom she had an ongoing casual romance for nearly a year — had accidentally taken her own life with a .38 caliber revolver.
A deputy coroner from the Lucas County Coroners Office, however, testified that the gunshot that killed Battle, in his professional opinion, did not come from close range. Dr. Jeffrey Hudson cited the absence of gunpowder “soot” or stippling that is usually present in suicide cases to support his findings.
The Lima woman did not take the witness stand during the trial and no defense witnesses were called.
