NATION : Jurors Split on N.Y. Murder

Bensonhurst racial attack defendant John Vento was found innocent this morning of one count of murder, but the sharply divided jury could not reach a verdict on a second murder charge against him.

The jury, which was in its ninth day of deliberations, convicted Vento of two counts of unlawful imprisonment and four counts of menacing for his role in the attack which left 16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins dead on a Brooklyn sidewalk.

Vento, who backed out of a deal to testify against his co-defendants in the case, faces one and one-third to four years on the unlawful imprisonment counts and 90 days on each menacing count. Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 14.

Prosecutors said Vento will be retried in September on the charges for which there was a hung jury.

The Vento case was the second trial stemming from the attack by a white gang on Hawkins, who was shot and killed in the predominantly white neighborhood last year. Hawkins was in the area to look at a used car.