WILLIAMSON — The trial of a 61-year-old Dingess man accused of luring three neighbor children to his home and engaging in sexual contact with them, ended in a hung jury in Mingo County Circuit Court Thursday.

A predominantly female jury (10 women, two men and one female alternate) sat for two days, hearing testimony from the three alleged victims along with three other state witnesses and six witnesses for the defense in the case against Lewis Allen Sheppard.

Opposing counsel presented closing arguments after lunch Thursday and Chief Judge Michael Thornsbury sent the jury to it its room at 2:10 p.m. Deliberations followed for about five hours but the jury could not reach a verdict.

Judge Thornsbury dismissed the jurors and set a new trial for Nov. 10.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Teresa D. Maynard presented the case for the state and Logan Attorney Bernard Spaulding represented the defendant, a widower but with a woman friend.

“We intend to pursue this matter at the new trial,” Maynard said.

The January indictment charging Sheppard was returned by the grand jury upon information given by Jeannie Curry, Child Protective Services supervisor for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. Curry was one of six state witnesses, who included the three children alleged to have been victims of first-degree sexual abuse.

Others testifying for the state were Cassie Ward, psychologist from Logan who treated the three children, and Misty Adkins, biological mother of two of the children and stepmother of the third child, deemed to have been victims of the defendant’s actions.

The defendant did not testify but there were six witnesses taking the stand to provide testimony in his defense. They included Teresa Sheppard, not related to the defendant but one of his friends; Lenora Muncy, a friend and neighbor of the defendant; Donna Canterbury, woman friend of the man on trial; Don Stevens, private investigator; Amy Sheppard, daughter of the defendant, and Diana Gilman, aunt of one of the alleged child victims.

Through witnesses’ testimony and investigation, Prosecutor Maynard told the jury the state had shown reason to believe that Sheppard lured the three children from their home nearby and entertained them at his home with snacks, soft drinks and toys. The homes are located in Muncy Bottom at Dingess.

The prosecution said the trial was based on abuses allegedly perpetrated by the defendant on at least one occasion in April 2007.

The state’s evidence accused the defendant of plying the children with snacks and other goodies, then taking them – in turn – to the bathroom where he stripped each child of its clothing and touched what the prosecution referred to as “their virginity.”

Defense Attorney Spaulding presented witnesses that denied the state’s charges and offered arguments in support of claims the defendant was innocent. The prosecutor claimed that the mother of two of the children and stepmother of the third one “made up the story” of the abuse on the children.

Defense witnesses were character witnesses for Sheppard and observed that the doors of his home cannot be locked and that the children could have left voluntarily at any time.