(NewsNation) — The jury that convicted Hunter Biden of three felony gun charges was split when they returned to a Delaware courthouse Tuesday morning before the 12 jurors eventually returned and found the son of President Joe Biden guilty on all charges.
Juror 10, who is from Sussex County, Delaware, told reporters after the verdict was read that the six jurors who arrived Tuesday prepared to acquit the president’s son did not want to rush to judgment.
Ultimately, however, the turning point came when jurors concluded that prosecutors proved that Biden had falsely checked a box on the gun application indicating he was not a drug addict or addicted to crack cocaine.
Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison on the charges, which include lying about his drug addiction on an application for a firearm, which he owned in Delaware for about 11 days. Biden now faces a September trial when he will contest misdemeanor tax charges after prosecutors maintain that Biden failed to pay $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016-19.
But in convicting Biden on Tuesday, the anonymous juror told reporters that Biden’s abuse of drugs around the same time he purchased the gun was a major factor in shifting the opinion of the jury.
Juror 10 said that the non-rush to judgment was “justice to Hunter” and that some of the six implored other jurors to give the president’s son the benefit of the doubt. But one juror remained firm, saying, “You’re not going to make me change my mind,” the juror told reporters.
Prosecutors said that they had planned to use portions of Biden’s 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things” in which he detailed his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse in the wake of the death of his brother Beau.
“When he bought the gun – the time leading up to when he was buying the gun and the time after he bought the gun, there was evidence of (drug) use,” the juror said.
However, while at least one juror who refused to budge on Biden’s guilt acknowledged that they found the testimony of Biden’s daughter, Hallie, “compelling,” Juror 10 said the same could not be said for Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.
He indicated he didn’t agree with the defense’s assertion that Biden’s life was in the hands of the jury.
“He clearly did not have things together like the prosecution did,” Juror 10 said, adding he did not feel Lowell provided a compelling case for his client’s innocence.
Lowell said in a statement Tuesday that he will pursue “all of the legal challenges available.”
Although Biden’s attorneys have claimed that gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden are politically motivated as President Biden seeks a second White House term, politics rarely entered the picture in finding Hunter Biden guilty, Juror 10 said.
The juror said he rarely watches the news and said that he didn’t know what charges Hunter Biden faced when he was called to serve on the jury.
He said that political motivations did not factor into the final decision at any time during the nearly three hours of jury deliberation. President Biden was not present for any of the trials, which were attended by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and other members of the Biden family.
“You just kind of somehow try to block that out of your mind,” the juror said of the first lady’s presence in the courtroom. “When you say the sitting president, and that’s his son on trial, I never actually thought about him being the president’s son.”
He added: “His dad wasn’t on trial.”
