John A. (Junior) Gotti was close yesterday to hitting a mobster's legal version of a trifecta as he appeared to be on the verge of his third mistrial.
The Manhattan jury deliberating his fate said it was hung on the racketeering indictment against the mob scion - giving Gotti some hope that the feds would fail again to put him back behind bars.
"We have been unable to reach a unanimous decision on all counts," the weary deliberators wrote in a note shortly after noon. "Thus, we feel we are deadlocked."
The only charge the panel said it could agree on was Gotti's role in the 1992 kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, although jurors didn't say whether they found him guilty or not.
It was the panel's sixth day behind closed doors in Manhattan Federal Court, and Gotti's lawyers immediately pressed Judge Shira Scheindlin to declare a mistrial.
Defense attorney Charles Carnesi said it was clear jurors had made up their minds and it was futile to send them back for more deliberations.
"They came in and indicated they're deadlocked," Carnesi told Scheindlin. "They're not coming out here asking for readbacks [of testimony]."
But Scheindlin, who presided over two previous Gotti trials that ended with hung juries, ordered the haggard panel back to deliberate. She told them, "I know it's been long, but there's still no hurry."
The judge also reminded the seven women and five men that if they didn't come up with a verdict, prosecutors were likely to bring the case a fourth time and their job would be left to another panel.
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