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Limestone County judge declares mistrial in murder case

A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the murder trial of an Alabama teenager accused of killing his father, stepmother and three young siblings after new evidence from one of the victim’s cellphones become available.

Limestone County Circuit Judge Chadwick Wise wrote in a one-page decision, attorneys need time to review a “voluminous” amount of material that was contained in the phone belonging to the stepmother of defendant Mason Sisk, who was 14 at the time of the gunshot killings.

Wise granted a defense motion to end the trial, which was entering its second week, and send jurors home.

Prosecutors accuse Sisk, now 17, of shooting his family to death in their north Alabama home in 2019, saying he told investigators he killed them because he was “fed up” with them.

Defense lawyers, who lost a bid to prevent jurors from hearing about Sisk’s statements to police, argued the boy didn’t have a plan to kill or any firearms experience.

A second trial will begin Feb.13th, a court docket showed.

Melanie began her career as a work study student, working in the areas of news reporting, anchoring and news-gathering. After graduating from Alabama State University, she worked as a production assistant at the local NBC affiliate, WSFA-TV. As a News Director at WVAS-FM, Melanie leads her team to produce award- winning newscasts and talk shows. Her professional achievements includes News Reporter of the Year for a number of years and awards for talk show producer, by the Alabama Broadcasters Association and the Associated Press. She is an active member of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. Her goals are to expand the reach of WVAS FM into more homes locally, regionally and nationally.