NATCHEZ — After a murder and armed robbery trial ended in mistrial when the jury couldn’t come to a unanimous verdict Tuesday, District Attorney Ronnie Harper said he plans to try the case again.

Eddie Minor III, 18, was tried Monday and Tuesday for the alleged robbery and shooting death of Jessie Taylor, 16, in December 2014.

During the trial, Minor’s co-defendant, Emmanuel Latham, 16, testified that Minor initiated a robbery and shooting of the victim, and that both of them started shooting at Taylor after Taylor returned a defensive gunshot. Taylor was struck by two bullets during the alleged exchange and died later that evening.

No witnesses other than Latham could say they saw Minor fire a shot or holding a gun.

After a little more than two hours deliberation, the jury came back and told the court it could not reach a unanimous verdict on either count, and was split 10-2 on the charge of armed robbery and 9-3 on the charge of murder.

Harper said his office has some discretion in deciding if it will pursue the case a second time, but the plan for this one is to prosecute it again.

“There is an opportunity in some cases to do additional things as far as the case is concerned that you may think were deficiencies or problems going in,” he said. “You are not prohibited from performing other tests to make the case stronger.”

During the trial, one of the challenges to the case that was raised was that phone records did not corroborate Latham’s testimony. But Latham said on the stand the problem was the police had gotten the wrong phone number and subpoenaed his mother’s phone.

“We could go back and get the correct phone number and get those phone records, since that seemed to be a possible problem,” Harper said.

While the defense attacked the extent of the Natchez Police Department’s investigation of the matter — the alleged murder weapons were never recovered — Harper said he believed the investigators did what they could with the case.

“There are always things that you can look back on and say, ‘I could have done this,’” he said. “I don’t think they soft-pedaled the case. I think they tried to work it as best as they could.”

Harper said he believes the trial will be reset for some time in March.