ESCANABA — After the trial for a man accused of shooting his ex-father-in-law was declared a mistrial, the prosecuting attorney is working on what to do next. She is leaning towards, but is unsure if she will retry the case.

Jacob Cronick, of Bark River, was on trial in Delta County Circuit Court, facing two felony charges, including assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and felony firearm. The trial began Monday, March 3, with jury selection and concluded just before 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, when Judge John Economopoulos declared a mistrial due to a hung jury.

Delta County Prosecutor Lauren Wickman said she is in the process of deciding what her office will do next.

“I’m going to start collecting some information, try to talk to a couple of the jurors, and then consolidate that information. (I’ll) have a conversation with the victim’s family.

Obviously, this is an emotional process on both sides, and so having that conversation about whether we’re going to recharge (or) move forward, (and) how we’re going to do that, and what the new information I might have, we’ll see where we fall,” Wickman said.

Since no verdict was reached, the prosecution can pursue trying the case again if it so chooses.

“I’m definitely leaning towards retrying, but I like to make a decision with as much information as possible. And so having that conversation with any of the jurors and seeing what their insight is, that will help me make that final determination of what we’re going to do,” she said.

The trial and subsequent mistrial stem from an incident on January 21, 2024, when Cronick’s ex-wife, Alexandria “Alex” Parrotta, came to Cronick’s residence to retrieve some of her belongings from the garage with some other people. An altercation broke out, which resulted in the shooting.

The victim — Alex’s father, Eric Parrotta — was shot in the abdomen by Cronick following a dispute over Eric being on his property.

It was clear from surveillance footage and witness testimony that the two did not like each other and were not on good terms.

A scuffle broke out between Eric, Croncik and other witnesses after Eric slapped a phone out of Cronick’s hand. Cronick responded by slamming Eric onto the hood of a car before other parties got involved. Croncik was placed in a chokehold during the scuffle and heard people saying they were going to “put him to sleep.” Cronick was able to get free and grabbed his gun. Cronick then fired the gun, hitting Eric in the abdomen.

Eric, Alex and the rest of the group left following the shooting, with Eric taken to the hospital.

Cronick called authorities and told them what occurred.

When responding officers arrived, Cronick was sitting outside with his hands up and informed them the gun was inside and unloaded.

He told officers his actions were out of self-defense, but after obtaining a search warrant and observing surveillance footage, officers arrested him.

The defense argued that Cronick acted out of self-defense, while the prosecution argued his actions were not in line with self-defense as he went “beyond what the law allows for self-defense and duress.”

The jury ultimately could not decide, and the proceedings were declared a mistrial.

Wickman said mistrials are something you always know can happen, but it’s not necessarily expected.

“You never necessarily expect it’s going to be that particular case or your particular case. So, it was disappointing not to have a verdict and not to be able to have some closure, but I understand, and that’s why the jury system is what it is.

So obviously, the jury spoke, even if they didn’t come back with the verdict, and we accept that, and we’ll take that information and move forward with it,” Wickman said.