By CASEY RYAN VOCK
This article will be updated soon with additional information.
PLATTSBURGH — A local businessman has been convicted of both drug charges.
After more than a week of testimony and two days of deliberation, Stephen Giroux was convicted at 5:45 tonight of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
The 12-member jury returned to Clinton County Court Thursday after eight hours of deliberations and told Judge Patrick McGill they were unable to reach a unanimous decision.
McGill then encouraged them to keep working toward a unanimous decision and had them return to court today.
They deliberated all day, asking for several readbacks of testimony before reaching the verdict.
The Plattsburgh store owner’s trial began March 11, and jurors heard from a number of prosecution witnesses about the cocaine sale that landed Giroux in trouble with the law last year.
Giroux was represented by attorney Edward Narrow.
Giroux is well-known in the community after having owned and operated Champy’s car wash, now called Champy’s Gas N Go, at the corner of Weed Street and Boynton Avenue, for many years.
He already served a local jail sentence for violating court orders relating to a Family Court matter.
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