UPDATED: Mistrial May Happen in City Kidnap Suspect's Case

UPDATED, 3:15 p.m.: A mistrial may be declared in the trial of a Portsmouth man charged with attempted kidnapping in the Ocean State Job Lot parking area in December 2011 after a witness came forward with photos of three other men wearing the same jacket similar to the one worn by the suspect.

The Union Leader reported Thursday afternoon that a man hired to install cameras in the Gosling Meadows apartments adjacent to the store testified he turned over to police surveillance photographs of three men wearing puffy jackets recorded after the attempted kidnapping.

The newspaper reported that Judge N. William Delker instructed county attorneys to look into whether police still had those images and to find why they were not turned over to the state prosecutors. The Union Leader reported that Delker said he would research the matter further this afternoon to see if a mistrial is warranted.

Earlier story: The defense lawyer for a Portsmouth man charged with trying to abduct a woman in her car in the Ocean State Job Lot parking lot in December argued that DNA evidence could link another man to the crime.

According to the Union Leader, Defense lawyer Brett Newkirk told a Rockingham County Superior Court jury in opening arguments Wednesday that prosecutors cannot prove that the jacket Portsmouth Police found in the woods near the store was actually worn by James Perry, 37, of Portsmouth, who is charged with attempted kidnapping. The Union Leader reported that Newkirk said that police found a second DNA sample from the jacket that belonged to a second man police found in the woods on the day of the crime.

Perry of 5 Weald Road in Portsmouth was arrested by Portsmouth Police on Jan. 18 following an investigation. He was charged with one count of armed robbery, a Class A felony, kidnapping, a Class A felony, reckless conduct, a Class B felony, and with being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon, a Class B felony.