4:30 p.m. Jurors in the Carlos Fierro vehicular homicide trial are going home after ending the day without a verdict. The jury is schedule to reconvene 9 a.m. Friday.

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Update: Judge Vigil has denied a request from Fierro attorney Jason Bowles for a mistrial in the case.

The request came after the judge changed some jury instructions, which said Fierro could be found not guilty if the negligence of another person was “the only significant cause of death.”

Instructions sent with jurors Monday said a not guilty verdict could be reached if they found the negligence of a person other than Fierro was “a significant cause of death.”

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After a second full day of deliberations, the jury in the Carlos Fierro vehicular homicide trial went home Tuesday without coming to a verdict.

The jurors began the day by asking again for the legal instructions they must follow to convict Fierro of vehicular homicide. Later in the day, they asked to see the video of the police stop of Fierro after he struck William Tenorio, 46, on Guadalupe Street just before 2 a.m. Nov. 26.

Jurors were initially told the video contained only "police chatter" recorded about the time Fierro and his passenger, former state police Sgt. Alfred Lovato, are told to sit on the curb. But the officer who pulled Fierro over testified that Fierro said something to him at the time about a rock being thrown at his car.

However, the portion of that video played during the trial only showed Officer Ben Valdez asking Fierro if he knew what he hit. "We don't know what we hit," Fierro or Lovato replies.

Early in the afternoon, lawyers in the case and state District Judge Michael Vigil watched the tape and noticed a section just before Fierro takes field sobriety tests when he makes statements about the rock. Jurors were then shown this portion of the video.

"A rock hit us," Fierro says as he sits on the curb. "Somebody threw a rock."

"Who threw a rock?" a police officer asks.

"I don't know," Fierro says. "Someone threw a rock."

Some of the six men and six women on the jury could be seen nodding their heads after hearing these comments.

Fierro testified Monday that he never saw Tenorio, who was wearing dark clothing, crossing the street, and fled the scene because he was scared that he and Lovato were being attacked. He said he thought someone might have thrown a rock or brick at the car.

Jason Bowles, one of Fierro's attorneys, said he thought his client's comments on the video were "critical to the trial" because they show Fierro being consistent in his account just minutes after the crash.

"I think it resonated with them," he said.

If jurors believe Tenorio was a substantial cause of the accident, the law doesn't allow them to convict Fierro of vehicular homicide. They can find him guilty of driving while intoxicated, which defense lawyers and Fierro have already admitted was the case.

Prosecutors declined to comment on why they didn't ask for the jury to consider aggravated DWI, which generally is charged when a defendant's blood or breath alcohol content is double the legal driving limit of .16 or above. However, they would likely argue during the sentencing phase that Fierro should be liable for aggravated DWI consequences based on the fact that his blood alcohol content after the crash was .21.

Bowles, on the other hand, said that if prosecutors wanted aggravated DWI penalties, they should have included that crime in the jury instructions. If Fierro is convicted of DWI, he should only be liable for the penalties that go along with that charge, he said.

Still, it probably won't matter much. The penalty for a first DWI, whether aggravated or not, is up to 90 days in jail. An aggravated DWI adds a mandatory additional two days in jail. Both are misdemeanors.

Fierro was charged with DWI in Albuquerque in 1997, but the case was never prosecuted, so it can't be used to tack on extra time under habitual offender laws.

Fierro is also charged with causing a fatal accident, which includes the charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

Meanwhile, the families involved in the trial have spent the last two days milling around the courthouse waiting for a verdict.

Numerous Tenorio family members and friends sat in hallway chairs on the upper level of the courthouse near the grand jury room and outside the child support hearing office. Fierro family members and friends mainly spent time on couches at the top of the stairs on the upper level.

Dianna Tenorio, William Tenorio's oldest daughter, said that waiting for the jury's verdict has been far easier than enduring the trial.

"Sitting in the trial is very emotionally draining," she said. "(Waiting around) is incomparable to what has happened in trial."

Dianna Tenorio said that while she and her family are taking the process one day at a time, she and her younger sister and brother feel it is somewhat surreal.

"We have a hard time realizing this is actually happening to us," she said. "It is something so foreign to us."

Joyce Fierro, Carlos Fierro's mother, said that while the process has undoubtedly been difficult on her son and family, she spent most of Tuesday thinking about her son's 9-year-old daughter.

"(The daughter is) worried," Joyce Fierro said. "Her whole future depends on the outcome (of the trial)."

Carlos Fierro's daughter lives full-time with her father, and the two are very close, Joyce Fierro said. However, Joyce Fierro also said she was thinking of William Tenorio's children as well.

"Obviously, it's very difficult for all the kids," she said. "They're who I've been thinking about today."

Jurors, who sent out a note about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon asking to go home for the day, are scheduled to resume deliberations at 9 a.m. today.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.