Blago jurors tell how they disagreed

As early as the third day of jury deliberations in the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial, juror Erik Sarnello of Itasca says he had an idea how things were going to end up.

An early vote showed an overwhelming majority of jurors felt the former Illinois governor was guilty of several of the 24 charges he faced.

Yet Sarnello did not think anyone was going to change the opinions of the jurors who felt he was not guilty of some charges - and definitely not the one juror who could not find him guilty on any but one charge.

"I gave the speech on the third day and asked, 'Does anybody else not see what's obvious here?'" Sarnello, 21, said of a possible deadlock. "It was clear to me but not so much to everybody else. But, obviously, deliberating more was the right thing to do."

Eleven days of deliberation later and there was not much movement in the jurors' opinions.

In the end, Blagojevich was convicted of just one charge - lying to federal authorities - and the jury was deadlocked on the rest, prompting Judge James Zagel to declare a mistrial on the remaining 23. Prosecutors say they will put Blagojevich on trial again.

The jury was unable to agree on the more serious charges, including accusations that he tried to sell President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

Sarnello said that charge, along with other bribery and extortion attempt charges, ended up deadlocked at 11 to 1. Despite a nearly unprecedented amount of audio recordings at their disposal, Sarnello said the holdout felt she did not see a smoking gun.

"She wanted concrete evidence," he said. "If it were a murder trial, she would have wanted to see the video of the shooting."

Juror Stephen Wlodek, 36, of Bartlett said Blagojevich's profanity-laced recordings concerning the "golden" U.S. Senate seat sealed his opinion that he was guilty of that count.

"That statement, among others, pretty much sealed the deal for me, based on the context there was," Wlodek said. "It showed there was some type of quid pro quo out there."

The entire jury had been prepared to convict Blagojevich on the bribery charge that dealt with the ex-governor trying to shake down then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, Wlodek said.

But reviewing testimony from former deputy governor Bradley Tusk on Monday made all the difference for certain jurors, he said.

"Reading the testimony swayed two to three jurors to go from guilty to not guilty," Wlodek said. "I think it just came down to the testimony of the witness. For them, it wasn't there - they felt it didn't prove their case."

In the end, the jury foreman, 66-year-old James Matsumoto of Chicago, told ABC 7 that the process was exhausting and frustrating, but that everyone was "extremely respectful to each other."

He said he voted to convict both Rod and Rob Blagojevich on all counts.

"I thought the government proved its case," he said. "That's a personal opinion. Some others didn't."

Wlodek said that on every charge between one and five jurors sided with the defense.

He said jurors kept going around in circles and that deliberations at times were emotional with people who didn't see evidence the same way as the majority.

"But nobody got out of line. We did our job," Wlodek said, adding that there was no threatening or name calling.

At the start, deliberations were emotional, Sarnello said, but they calmed down as one female holdout stood her ground.

"The beginning was a low point and everyone brought out their emotions, but there was never any yelling and nobody ever took it personally," he said. "We just started using the evidence and took the feelings out of it."

Although Sarnello says an 11 to 1 early vote made it seem like the jury was close to a verdict, he said the discussion during deliberations led him to believe that was not the case.

Sarnello said he himself was undecided at the start of deliberations due to what he said was the prosecution's scattered timeline during the trial. But after looking at all of the evidence and the jurors constructed a solid timeline, he voted guilty on about 80 percent of the charges.

Wlodek also offered insight as to what the jury thought of Rod and Patti Blagojevich bringing their daughters to court.

"It was mentioned but not mentioned at length," Wlodek said. "I think everyone did see that as somewhat as a stunt ... but it didn't sway us either way."

Despite coming back with a hung jury on most counts in a high-profile case, Sarnello said the jury did its job.

"We felt we had done everything and there was nothing else we could have done," he said. "We have done our job and there was absolutely nothing else we could have done."