Dane County Sheriff's Office
Chad Chritton is accused of imprisoning his daughter in the family basement.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
A divided jury was deliberating again Friday on the fate of a Wisconsin father accused of horrifically abusing his teenage daughter -- who told police she was locked in a basement and practically starved.
Chad Chritton denies harming his daughter, who is now 16, and says she?weighed just 68 pounds when she ran away from home because she didn't like to eat. The defense claims the girl has mental problems and was threatening the family.
Chritton, 41, declined to take the stand in his own defense, saying he wasn't sure he could "competently answer questions without getting confused," the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
The Madison jury got the case Thursday and deliberated for nine hours before saying they couldn't reach a verdict, NBC affiliate WMTV reported. The judge ordered them to try again Friday.
The teen was found wandering the street, barefoot and in pajamas, on Feb. 6, 2012, and eventually told authorities a tale of terrible abuse.
On the witness stand earlier this week, she said her father and stepmother kept her locked up in the basement, which had an alarm on the door.
Her father choked her and called her "Stinky," she said, according to the State Journal.
She said she slept on a bare floor, used containers as a toilet and scrounged for scraps of food because she feared making a raid on the kitchen.
"The reason why I didn't want to eat was because I was afraid to ask my dad and stepmom because I was afraid they'd say no," she testified.
Her stepmother, Melinda Drabek-Chritton, is due to be tried next month. Her stepbrother, Joshua Drabek, 19, is awaiting a June trial on charges he tried to sexually assault the teen.
The girl's foster mother testified that when she first came to her house, she would sneak into the kitchen at night and gorge herself. But she's since started eating normally and is up to 120 pounds. She also goes to school, plays the flute and participates in swimming and cross-country track.
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