AUGUSTA — A city man, jailed on child sex assault charges for two years, was cleared by a jury Thursday of a charge of gross sexual assault but convicted of a charge of unlawful sexual contact.

The jury also reported it was deadlocked and could not reach a verdict on a separate count of gross sexual assault at the close of a three-day trial at the Capital Judicial Center.

Andrew Seamon, 49, went on trial Tuesday. He had been indicted in June 2014 and has been held in jail since then.

He was accused of two counts of gross sexual assault, which say he engaged in a sexual act with a victim under age 12 and that one of those offenses occurred in the period of May 31, 2012,-May 31, 2013; and the other, June 1, 2013-Feb, 1, 2014. Seamon later was indicted on one count of unlawful sexual contact that allegedly occurred May 31, 2012-May 31, 2013, all in Augusta.

He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges and testified in his own defense Wednesday at his trial.

On Thursday, Justice Michaela Murphy polled the six men and six women individually about count 1, a charge of gross sexual assault. All said the jury was deadlocked on that charge and that further deliberations would not result in a verdict being reached on that charge. They deliberated for more than five hours Thursday before returning the partial verdict at 5:20 p.m.

Murphy then declared a mistrial on that charge.

She ordered Seamon held without bail on the conviction on the charge of unlawful sexual contact pending a sentencing hearing, which Murphy said could be held in September. The charge of unlawful sexual contact carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Seven of Seamon’s family members, including two babies, came in to listen to the verdict.

The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Kristin Murray-James, had told jurors in her opening statement that they would hear about an 8-year old boy who was sexually assaulted and sexually abused.

“What you’ll hear (in this trial) will be troubling and difficult,” she said. “Deciding it will be easy.”

Seamon’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Towne, said, “Definitely it’s a very difficult case to hear.”

However, in his opening, he urged jurors to “evaluate the motivation of (witnesses) to fabricate or exaggerate what Mr. Seamon supposedly told them.”

The boy spent about two hours on the witness stand Tuesday, responding to questions from both attorneys about what happened some four years ago.

At one point, Towne asked him if he had changed his story from what he had told investigators at the Child Advocacy Center two years ago.

“No, I swore an oath,” the boy responded.

The boy also said that Seamon threatened to commit suicide if the boy told anyone about what happened, but that the boy told his sisters about it.

Seamon took notes as the boy testified.

During deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom Thursday afternoon to listen to a replay of an audiotaped interview of Seamon by Augusta police Detective Tori Tracy.

In the interview, Seamon tells Tracy, “I’m going to tell you right now I did nothing ethically or morally wrong with (the victim).”

Jurors also watched again a brief video of the boy being interviewed by an investigator at the Children’s Advocacy Center while the boy describes one of the alleged sexual assaults.

A court reporter also read back testimony from one of the boy’s relatives, who said the boy told her about the abuse and she later confronted Seamon.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams