NORFOLK (WAVY) — The family of Aaron Leach Jr. will have to wait months for another shot at justice, as the trial of the man accused of murdering their son nearly two years ago ended in a mistrial Wednesday.

At just 22 years old, Leach was shot and killed in his car on the 1000 block of Creamer Rd in the Ocean View area of Norfolk on Sept. 18, 2022. Then-20-year-old Emilio Rodriguez-Lopez was arrested in connection to the shooting and charged with second-degree murder.

Almost two years later, the case went to trial this week. It wasn’t long after the jury began deliberating — and after the alternate juror had been released — when one of its members suffered an apparent medical emergency.

Rodriguez-Lopez’s attorney, Thomas Reed, told 10 On Your Side that had both sides agreed to continue moving forward, the jury could’ve been allowed to deliver a verdict.

Instead, he made the decision to retry the case at a later date.

The Commonwealth’s case was based on the idea that Rodriguez-Lopez had tricked Leach into coming to his house to sell him weed, in order to rob him at gunpoint.

The prosecution’s firearms expert witness testified that only one kind of casing was recovered at the scene. Rodriguez-Lopez’s handgun was recovered from a shed on his property. The prosecution argued it was the only weapon used that day.

“Emilio thought he was in a drug transaction and no one was going to get hurt,” Reed said outside the courtroom, summarizing the case he made. “The victim was his friend, and a third person came up to the victim’s driver-side window and fired into the car. … Emilio got hit in the stomach, fired back in defense and sadly and unfortunately, one of those bullets hit his friend, hit the victim.”

Rodriguez-Lopez stated during the trial that he shot at the window in an attempt to escape. An autopsy report, however, made it clear the shots that hit and killed Leach Jr. were from the passenger side, where Rodriguez-Lopez was located.

The court set a date for a second trial on Feb. 25.