A 12-member jury began deliberating whether or not to convict former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and his business associate Sharon Lettman-Hicks on more than a dozen fraud charges on Friday afternoon.
Jurors began deliberations after closing arguments ended on Friday afternoon in the federal trial against the two defendants, who pleaded guilty last year after they were first indicted. They broke after 5 p.m. and will resume deliberations on Monday at 9 a.m.
They're both facing one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 17 counts of wire fraud. Gillum is also charged with lying to the FBI.
The fraud charges stem from three alleged schemes to defraud campaign donors and grantors out of approximately $242,000 that was transferred to Lettman-Hicks' firm P&P Communications. Most of the funds were paid out to Gillum in the form of salary payments from P&P.
Prosecutors argue Lettman-Hicks and Gillum agreed to defraud donors and then acted together to carry out the fraud, knowing that the money would be paid to Gillum. They say his motive was to recover the roughly $120,000 salary that he lost when he left his job at People for the American Way to campaign for governor.
During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan told jurors that Gillum was "unable to generate those funds" while he was spending all day, every day campaigning for governor and "other sources had to be found."
Gillum was hired by P&P Communications in February 2017, soon after he resigned from his position at PFAW and declared his candidacy for governor.
Over the last couple of weeks, prosecutors showed the jury financial records related to the alleged schemes, including bank statements, deposit slips, budgets, fiscal reports, account. People who worked closely with Gillum and Lettman-Hicks, bank employees and FBI agents also took the stand.
Gillum and Lettman-Hicks chose not to testify in the trial. A unanimous jury is required to convict them.
