Convicted murderer Roger Marshall will wait a bit longer to learn his fate, but at least he knows now that he probably won’t face the death penalty.

Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Richard Walton Saturday ended 22 hours of deliberation and declared a mistrial in the sentencing phase of the triple-murder and arson case.

“You don’t know how much we appreciate the work and effort you’ve put into this,” Walton told the jury. “This was a serious matter and you approached it that way.”

Walton said he would schedule a sentencing date sometime later this month.

What sentence will Marshall likely receive? It depends on whom you ask.

Defense co-counsel Charles Knight said the hung jury was better than he had expected.

Knight said it was his understanding that, according to Ohio law, if the jury cannot reach a decision on a penalty, the court must impose the minimum sentence, in this case, which is life with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

“We have to believe this is the best of all worlds,” Knight said.

“This preserves our right to appeal and if the appeals are not successful we do have this sentence. I think the jury gave it everything they could and clearly there was a difference of opinion in there even after three days of deliberation.

“We have to assume there were individuals who thought the death penalty was the right thing and there were individuals who thought a life sentence was the right thing. But we shall never know.”

However, Lawrence County Prosecutor J.B. Collier Jr., said it was his understanding that the judge could not impose the death penalty but had the option of choosing from the three life sentence alternatives: Life with possibility of parole after 25 years, after 30 years and after 35 years.

Collier said he was disappointed with the outcome. He had argued against declaring a mistrial, noting that when Walton queried the jurors if they could reach a decision on a penalty, they had indicated they could with more time to consider the matter.

“This is a most serious decision and I realize they’d spent quite a bit of time in their deliberations but again when they say they can reach a verdict they should be given the opportunity to do so. Had they said they were hopelessly deadlocked, I would have felt the court was justified in declaring a mistrial,” he said.

Walton said he will study the matter before making a decision

on what sentence will be imposed.

The jury began deliberations just before noon Thursday and continued until just after 5 p.m. Deliberations continued all day Friday and then until 3 p.m. Saturday.

Marshall was convicted in late February of 11 counts of arson and three counts of aggravated murder.

He was arrested in early August and accused of setting a fire at the Lyle Motel that killed his ex-girlfriend, Lolaetta Corbin Hicks, her new romantic interest, John Meyer and a third man, James Reed.

Several other people were at the motel at the time of the fire but escaped without serious injury.