OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal jury has deadlocked for the second time in a trial of a former correctional officer charged with sexually abusing four inmates at a now-closed federal women’s prison in California.

Prosecutors said Darrell Wayne Smith, who worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, assaulted the women in their cells and in the prison’s laundry room between 2019 and 2021. He faced 14 counts related to sexual abuse.

Jurors, who had been deliberating since Sept. 18, could not reach a unanimous verdict and deadlocked on Wednesday, KTVU-TV reported. In March, Smith faced similar charges in a trial that also ended with a deadlock.

Defense attorneys at both trials argued there was no DNA, no forensic evidence, no surveillance video and no diaries to prove what the gov

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