Mistrial declared in child sex abuse case involving former Prince George school administrator

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- The trial involving a former Prince George County school administrator accused of child sex crimes ended in a mistrial on Thursday, after four days in court and nearly seven hours of jury deliberation.

On Thursday, Jan. 8, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision regarding any of the several charges 79-year-old William Barnes Jr. faced -- which included sexual battery, indecent acts with a child and forced sodomy.

While Barnes was originally facing nine charges when the trial began, the jury ended up deliberating over six charges after some charges were dismissed on Wednesday, Jan. 7 and on Thursday.

This hung jury comes after several days of testimony from twelve witnesses -- including the accuser, a forensic psychologist, another individual alleging abuse from Barnes, the accuser's estranged spouse and both of the accuser's adult children.

Barnes' accuser said Barnes molested them for years in the 1980s while they were 14 to 17 and living under Barnes' care in his home.

The defense cast doubt on the credibility of the accuser, who sometimes contradicted themselves on the stand and was characterized by the defense as an angry person looking to hurt Barnes.

The Commonwealth's Attorney argued that Barnes was an abuser who groomed and broke the trust of an entire community, alleging he used his position in the schools to gain access to children and abuse them.

The witness alleging additional abuse from Barnes claimed Barnes molested them when they were 15 years old -- 10 years before the crimes Barnes was on trial for this week allegedly occurred.

On March 20, Barnes will return to court to decide the date of his retrial.

Barnes is facing two other charges for separate child abuse cases, which are set for later this year -- but these dates could now be pushed depending on the retrial.