A jury in Montana couldn’t decide whether on Oak Harbor resident Leon Ford is guilty of killing a neighbor in 2011 over a property dispute.

A district court judge in Helena declared a mistrial Wednesday after the jury deadlocked at the end of the three-week trial. Ford, a Navy veteran, was accused of deliberate homicide and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in the death of John M. Crites.

Ford testified in his defense during the trial and denied harming Crites.

KTVH reported that the lead prosecutor on the case said he expected Ford will be retried.

Crites disappeared from his home amidst a dispute with Ford over an access road. Crites’ dismembered remains were later found in two different wooded locations on a mountain pass. The medical examiner determined that Crites died from gunshot wounds to the head.

The murder weapon was not identified, although investigators seized firearms from Ford’s Oak Harbor home through a search warrant.

Zip ties discovered with the remains were a key piece of evidence in the trial. Prosecutors alleged that the ties came from a contractor that Ford worked for at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Several people from Whidbey Island were subpoenaed to testify at the trial.

A neighbor’s game camera allegedly showed Ford’s red Chevrolet pickup headed up to Crites’ house and not returning for hours. Investigators accused Ford of changing his story about what he was doing on the road.

During the trial, two of Crites’ other former neighbors were called to the stand but invoked their Fifth Amendment rights, according to KTVH. They were not named as suspects.

In closing arguments, Attorney Palmer Hoovestal said there were too many unanswered questions in the case and that Ford had no reason to kill Crites, KTVH reported.

“He is a decorated combat veteran — he is the kind of guy that follows orders, he is the kind of guy that does the right thing,” Hoovestal said, according to KTVH. “He is the kind of guy that would not freak out and suddenly kill Michael Crites for whatever reason — what, because he’s got a barricade across the road?”

A tentative retrial date was set for January 2024.