COSBY TRIAL: Jury in Bill Cosby trial wraps up Day 3 without verdict

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — 8:53 p.m. UPDATE:

The jury in Bill Cosby's sex assault trial is going home for the night after failing to reach a verdict on the third day of deliberations.

The panel decided to stop Wednesday night after revisiting a police interview where the comedian acknowledged giving accuser Andrea Constand pills and fondling her at his suburban Philadelphia estate.

The 79-year-old Cosby is facing three felony indecent assault charges that could put him in prison for the rest of his life.

They'll resume Thursday morning.

Jurors have been deliberating for more than 27 hours since getting the case Monday.

Some jurors closed their eyes and tilted their heads down as a court reporter reread Cosby's January 2005 interview. One slunk down in his seat, looking angry.

Accuser Constand and her mother sat in the gallery as the interview was read. Gianna Constand wiped away tears at times.

5:45 p.m. UPDATE:

The jury in Bill Cosby's sexual assault case appears ready to work late for the third night in a row.

Jurors asked for testimony about a detective's interview with Cosby in early 2005. The comedian acknowledged groping Andrea Constand after giving her pills.

Judge Stephen O'Neill says a court reporter is racing to transcribe that portion of last week's testimony. The jurors ordered strombolis for dinner while they wait.

Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. He says it was consensual.

The jury has been weighing Cosby's fate for more than 24 hours over three days.

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ORIGINAL STORY:

Jurors in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial reviewed portions of his accuser's testimony Wednesday as they deliberated for a third day over whether the 79-year-old star drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia estate.

Jurors made the request to have portions of Andrea Constand's testimony read back to them after deliberating about 21 hours without reaching a verdict in a case that has already helped demolish Cosby's nice-guy reputation.

Constand, 44, who spent seven hours on the stand last week, was in the gallery as the jury scrutinized her story.

She testified that Cosby gave her pills that left her woozy, helped her to a couch and then violated her while she was passed out, unable to say no or fight his advances.

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The jury had previously reviewed Cosby's version of events, contained in a deposition he gave in 2005 and 2006 as part of Constand's lawsuit against him and introduced by prosecutors at the criminal trial.

Cosby said he gave Constand three half-tablets of Benadryl, an over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine, to help her relax. His lawyers maintain Constand was a willing sexual partner.

Constand denied there was any romance between them and told jurors she had rebuffed his advances before the assault. She believes he gave her something stronger than Benadryl on the night she says he molested her.

"Can you find 12 people who will agree? That's the question," said criminal lawyer Alan J. Tauber, who wasn't involved in the case.

Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Each carries a maximum 10-year prison term, though the counts could be merged at sentencing if he is convicted.

The first prosecutor to review the case in 2005 passed on it. A new one, District Attorney Kevin Steele, reversed course a decade later, after dozens of women came forward to accuse Cosby of sexual misconduct and after the public release of his startling deposition in which he spoke about giving the powerful sedative quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with.

The long-married Cosby, once known as America's Dad for his portrayal of kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," called all the encounters consensual.

The Rev. Andrew F. Kline, a vicar of a historic black church in Norristown who stopped by the courthouse steps Wednesday to check out the scene, said his congregation is "absolutely" talking about the case given Cosby's place in their lives.

"He was huge. He was huge. He was a role model. He couldn't escape that," Kline said. "You probably want it on one level, as a celebrity. He made some powerful statements that people either said, 'Yeah, Amen,' or 'That's not the way we are.'

"So it's always difficult to look under the hood and see the reality of our lives," Kline said. "I pray for him. I pray for her. I pray for everybody here that justice be done, but that there be some mercy, too, right? I mean, we need to be about that."

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.