ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors said they could not reach a verdict in the case of a man accused of killing a college student in her dorm room.

After 15 hours of deliberations over three days, the panel of two men and 10 women sent a note to the court indicating they were "hopelessly deadlocked" in the trial of former Eastern Michigan University student Orange Taylor III. (VIDEO)

"Do you believe there is any possibility that you can reach a unanimous decision on one or all of these counts?" Washtenaw Circuit Court Judge Archie Brown asked the jury Tuesday afternoon.

"No, your honor," said the female foreperson, evoking a broad smile from the defendant.

Taylor pumped his fist emphatically as deputies led him out of an Ann Arbor courtroom filled with relatives of the defendant and the victim, 22-year-old Laura Dickinson.

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The judge set Jan. 28, 2008, as Taylor's new trial date. He remains in custody.

Washtenaw County prosecutors allege that Taylor, 21, broke into the dorm room of Dickinson, a first-year nutrition student, on the morning of Dec. 13, 2006, and suffocated her to death in a sexually motivated attack.

If convicted, Taylor would have faced life without parole on charges of murder, assault with attempted sexual penetration, home invasion and larceny for allegedly killing Dickinson, 22, and stealing a bag from her room that contained evidence.

Shortly after Brown declared the mistrial, one of two hold-out jurors told members of the press that she felt prosecutors had failed to prove that Taylor was in Dickinson's room before she was killed.

Lauretta Codrington also said that the findings of medical examiner Bader Cassin, who testified that he could not conclusively state whether Dickinson was strangled to death or smothered with a pillow, left her questioning whether Dickinson was murdered or if she died of natural causes, as the defense suggested.

"The difficulty was placing the defendant at the scene before the victim was found dead," said Codrington, the owner of a sports management business. "I was in doubt that she was killed."

Taylor's lawyers did not dispute that he was in the room or that he left behind drops of semen on Dickinson's body, which was found lying on the floor, nude from the waist down, with a pillow covering her head.

In remarks to the jury Friday, defense lawyer Alvin Keel said that Taylor masturbated on Dickinson when he discovered her body, but insisted that he was not involved in her death. Keel attributed Dickinson's death to heart arrhythmia, a medical condition for which Dickinson was hospitalized in 2005.