Five hours of deliberations resulted in a hung jury in the case of a Casper man accused of assaulting an off-duty police officer at a downtown bar.

The same jury of three men and three women acquitted Kelvin Montgomery of assaulting a bartender during the same incident.

Montgomery showed no emotion as a judge announced the jury had deadlocked on whether he'd assaulted Casper police officer Mark Cutrell at Elixirs bar on March 16.

The jury began deliberations at 1 p.m. Just after 6 p.m., Natrona County Circuit Judge Michael Patchen called jurors into court and asked them whether they were unable to reach a verdict.

"Yes your honor, it's true," one juror said.

Patchen asked whether further deliberations might help. The same juror answered no while others nodded their heads. At the end of the proceedings, the judge thanked the jury and released them.

No one disputes Montgomery struck Cutrell in the head with a glass during an altercation at the bar. Rather, the trial, which began Tuesday, focused on whether the act was an assault or self defense.

Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Kara Crawford portrayed Montgomery as the instigator of an assault that ended only when he knocked Cutrell unconscious with the blow to the head. She presented evidence that Montgomery later told a deputy, "I should do to all pigs what I did to that pig."

Montgomery denied making the statement, and his attorney, Patrick LeBrun, told jurors Cutrell had picked the fight. LeBrun said his client acted in fear, pointing out that, in violation of department policy, Cutrell had been carrying his duty gun while drinking that night.

Cutrell and Montgomery both testified during the trial. Each portrayed the other as the aggressor in the encounter.

On the first day of the trial, Cutrell testified the incident began after someone call him a "snitch."

The officer told jurors he'd arrived at the bar at about 1 a.m. after having drunk an estimated 10 to 12 beers over several hours at Sidelines sports bar. He was on his way toward the bar area of Elixirs when he hears someone call him a snitch and curse him.

Cutrell testified that he made eye contact with the man who was screaming at him. He approached the man and told him he was a cop. Cutrell also used an obscene word.

"He shoved me," Cutrell testified. "I shoved him. There was a little tussle in the bar. Then I got struck in the head."

The blow to the left temple was powerful enough to immediately send Cutrell to the floor. It cut an artery in his head and required more than two dozen stiches to close.

Cutrell was armed that night with a gun kept in a holster concealed in the small of his back. He said he never reached for the weapon during the altercation.

When Montgomery took the stand Wednesday to offer his version of the events, he had several sharp exchanges with Crawford, whom he called a liar at one point. He said the incident began after someone pushed him from behind.

Montgomery testified that he turned around and saw Cutrell, who then pushed him. The defendant responded with his own push. Montgomery, who is black, said Cutrell also called him a racial slur.

Montgomery told the court he saw the handle of Cutrell's gun and that the officer had started to reach behind him during the incident. He said he struck Cutrell out of fear and insisted he didn't know at the time the man he'd hit was a police officer.

"Honest to God, I was scared," he said.

During her closing argument, Crawford pointed out that Montgomery was the only person who testified seeing Cutrell's gun during the altercation. Other witnesses told the court Cutrell had his hands raised above his waist before being struck.

"No other person in the bar saw the firearm until the defendant was gone," she said.

Much of the defense's case focused on the fact that Cutrell had a pistol on him that night.

Other officers had to take the gun from Cutrell after he regained consciousness. During the trial, officers who had responded to the bar testified Cutrell appeared intoxicated, but also impaired from the blow to the head.

Reach crime reporter Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com.