Judge Gina Jones declared a hung jury Friday after jurors couldn’t reach a verdict on the second day of deliberations in a Gary man’s child molesting trial.
Frederick Fenderson, 64, was charged in December 2020 with child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor. He pleaded not guilty.
A status hearing is set for June 25.
The victim, then 29, told a Colorado detective in 2019 that Fenderson sexually assaulted her in Gary from age 7 to 14. The worst happened from 2002 to 2004.
In closing arguments Thursday, Deputy Prosecutor Jessica Arnold, with co-counsel Maureen Koonce, said the victim told others, including her sister, a school classmate what happened two decades ago.
The victim remembered the “big” details, Arnold said.
Defense lawyer Casey McCloskey said Gary Police Det. Roberto Figueroa did a “slipshod” investigation. The prosecution only called four witnesses — mostly names the victim provided.
He argued there wasn’t any decades-old corroborating documentation — for example, from a pediatrician or school.
No one from the Indiana Department of Child Services testified. The agency had begun an investigation before the victim’s mother moved herself and the kids back to Colorado.
“What they presented isn’t enough,” McCloskey said.
