BANGOR – After deliberating for five hours Thursday, a Penobscot County jury told Maine Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead that members were hopelessly deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in the arson trial of Scott Gagnon. When the jury was polled, each member told Mead that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Mead declared a mistrial about 4:30 p.m. and dismissed the seven men and five women who had spent more than three days listening to testimony that included the defendant’s taped confession to police.

The case will be returned to the docket, but Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said it was unlikely that a new trial would begin before co-defendant Harold Hawkes is tried for the same crime.

Hawkes, 19, invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify in Gagnon’s case Tuesday. The prosecution claimed that Hawkes prepared the Molotov cocktail that Gagnon tossed through the window of the Extra Touch lingerie shop about 4 a.m. April 4. Both men face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The fire destroyed the business that had been located on the corner of Exchange and State streets for 21 years. Upper floors also were heavily damaged in the six-story building owned by Coe Management Group.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein said in his closing argument Thursday morning that police had no eyewitnesses who could place Gagnon at the scene at the time the fire broke out. He also said that the two were not recorded on Bangor Savings Bank 24-hour security cameras that monitor its ATM on State Street. Gagnon told police that he walked past the bank on his way up State Street.

Most of Silverstein’s closing, however, focused on the taped police interview played for the jury Wednesday. Bangor police Detectives Mark Hathaway and Robert Gould spoke with Gagnon three days after the fire. Hawkes already had been arrested for the fire and had told police that Gagnon was involved.

Gagnon spent most of the interview denying any involvement by himself or Hawkes, as police persisted in accusing him. At some point the 19-year-old cried and sounded flustered as he pleaded with police to stop pressuring him.

“You heard the tape,” Silverstein told the jury Thursday morning. “The police are cramming and ramming words down his throat until he crumbles over time and finally gives in. He’s denying and denying it, until, finally they get him to say what they want.”

Roberts said the police used standard interview techniques without yelling, screaming or pushing Gagnon very hard. Gagnon put himself in the area, pointed out Roberts. The assistant district attorney admitted there were no eyewitnesses and that evidence of the accelerant used to start the blaze was destroyed by the flames.

“He [Gagnon] indicated a plastic bottle was used to start the fire that was consistent with what investigators found at the scene,” said Roberts. “That accelerant had to come from the outside.”

Gagnon spent the long wait during the jury’s deliberation with his parents, Gail and Steve Gagnon, other family members and friends in a conference room adjacent to the courtroom. Dressed in a maroon velour shirt and black jeans, he quietly sat at the defense table during closing statements. His voice never rose above a whisper inside the courtroom.

Both attorneys agreed Thursday that they did not expect to change their legal strategies at Gagnon’s next trial. Roberts said that he did not know what impact Hawke’s case would have on Gagnon’s retrial.

“Theoretically, Hawkes could testify against Gagnon [in a second trial] and not invoke his Fifth Amendment rights,” said Roberts. “But, at this point, I don’t know what that individual would say.”

Silverstein said that his client would not testify at Hawke’s trial.

After Mead dismissed the jury, the defense attorney asked the judge to lower Gagnon’s bail, which is set at $20,000 cash or a $200,000 surety. The 19-year-old has been in the Penobscot County Jail, along with Hawkes, since his arrest, unable to make bail.

Mead took the matter under advisement, but it’s likely Gagnon will spend the holidays in jail while he awaits a new trial sometime next year.