A jury could not agree on a final answer yesterday as to whether a man who has been charged of torturing and murdering his girlfriend’s  2-year-old son should be sentenced to receive the death penalty.

The jury took a vote with a result of 9-3 which approved sending Jose Maurice Castenada to serve life in jail without the option of parole. Since the jury was not able to reach a final decision, a judge deemed the trial a mistrial for the penalty portion. 

Superior Court Judge Joan Weber scheduled the attorneys and the defendant to come back to court on July 30 to decide how they will go about the rest of the case. 

Castenada, 24, was found guilty last week of murder in the first-degree, torture and other various charges linked to the murder of Cesar Razo. Jurors also decided that Castaneda was responsible for misdemeanor child abuse which he practiced on the victim’s five-year-old sister in 2005. 

Prosecutor Lucy Weismantel fought against Castaneda and claimed that he was attempting to sleep on June 25, 2005, when Cesar started to cry from the closet that he was forced to sleep. Castenada then beat the boy in his mother’s presence, Maria Razo, and sister.

Defense lawyer Allen Bloom argued that Castaneda has no past record of violence and he blamed Razo for physically abusing her kids.