Independance, Mo. ? A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a Jackson County Circuit Court jury said it was unable to reach a verdict in the case of a man accused of shoving a cell phone into his former girlfriend’s throat.

Judge Michael W. Manners accepted the jury’s conclusion that it could not reach a verdict in the case of Marlon Brando Gill, 24, and declared the mistrial. Prosecutors did not comment on the possibility of retrying the case.

Gill had been charged with first-degree assault for allegedly forcing the cell phone into the mouth of Melinda Abell, 25, on Dec. 23, while they were arguing in a car.

During five-day trial, Abell testified that she had been drinking that evening and did not remember how the phone ended up lodged in her throat. Gill said she tried to swallow it to prevent him from finding out whom she had been calling that night.

Abell was later taken to a hospital, where an emergency room doctor removed the phone.

Abell wrote in a statement to police after the incident: “I think he thought I’d been talking to other guys. … He took my phone to see who I had been calling. … If I didn’t want him to see my phone, I would have just thrown it out the window and busted it.”