A Supreme Court jury deliberated for more than five hours yesterday but was unable to decide whether Anthony Conroy Francis was guilty of robbing the Southampton Princess branch of the Bank of Butterfield armed with a handgun.

They began deliberating at 10.30 a.m., and at 3.30 p.m. Puisne Judge the Hon.

Mrs. Justice Wade summoned them back to the courtroom and took a poll to determine the level of agreement without identifying whether it was in favour of or against an acquittal.

At that time the forewoman said that it did not look as if they could reach agreement on the robbery charge because they were split eight to four.

However, on the possession of a handgun charge, the panel had reached a majority verdict with at least nine jurors in agreement.

Mrs. Justice Wade then gave the jury 30 more minutes to deliberate and they returned at 4 p.m.

The forewoman said that seven jurors voted for an acquittal on the robbery charge while five favoured a conviction.

But on the possession of a handgun charge they came back 11-1 in favour of a conviction.

Neither defence lawyer Mr. Archie Warner or Crown counsel Mr. Khamisi Tokunbo were prepared to proceed with the sentencing for the handgun charge yesterday.

Francis, 27 of Stadium Heights, Devonshire, will be sentenced for this offence on October 31 at 9.30 a.m.

He was remanded in custody until his sentencing and will be retried on the robbery charge.

Both charges grew out of a bank robbery during the afternoon of October 14, 1994. Two men rode into the parking lot and one of them went into the bank armed with a nine millimetre handgun.

He shot into the ceiling and ordered a teller to fill a Meyer Agencies bag with cash which totaled more than $20,000.

Che Pennyman was later arrested for the robbery and admitted going into the bank armed with a handgun and committing the robbery.

He is currently serving 12 years for the offences.

In testimony last week Pennyman said Francis was his accomplice and had provided the gun and the get-away vehicle.

Francis denied this allegation and will be given a new trial after the panel returned deadlocked.