JUNEAU, Alaska — A judge declared a mistrial in the case of Rachelle Waterman Tuesday morning after jurors weighing murder and conspiracy charges against her said they were unable to reach a verdict.

The panel of seven women and five men had deliberated 32 hours over five days and had sent notes to the judge indicating disagreement over the 17-year-old's level of involvement in the brutal murder of her mother, Lauri, by two ex-boyfriends.

"It's hopeless at this point," juror Daniel Reierson said to Judge Patricia Collins.

As his fellow jurors nodded along, Reierson told the judge they were at "an impasse." He said the split applied to one element of all seven counts facing Waterman.

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"We cannot produce a unanimous vote with any further deliberation," he said.

Although he did not name the element in question, the only element common to the charges, which range from first-degree murder to vehicle theft, is intentionality — whether Waterman was acting deliberately to commit a crime.

The prosecution contends Waterman asked Jason Arrant and Brian Radel to kill her mother and helped them plot the murder.

Lauri Waterman, 48, was abducted from the family home in their tiny island village and murdered on Nov. 14, 2004, while her daughter, then 16, was playing in the state volleyball championships in Anchorage.

Her 24-year-old ex-boyfriend, Arrant, confessed to arranging the murder and enlisting his best friend, Radel, also 24 and a former love of the defendant, to carry out the crime. Both men struck plea deals and testified against Waterman at the trial.

Arrant said Waterman had conned him into killing her mother with phony stories of child abuse. Radel said it was Arrant who tricked him into thinking they were saving the teenager when, he said, it appeared Arrant simply wanted unfettered access to Waterman to conduct a sexual relationship.

Rachelle's father, "Doc" Waterman, reacts to the announcement.

The defendant, dressed in a green cardigan and looking pale and nervous, stared at the jury as Reierson announced their deadlock. After jurors were thanked and excused, she was handcuffed and returned to jail. If convicted on all counts, Waterman faces 317 years in prison.

Prosecutor Stephen West has indicated that he will retry Waterman, possibly as soon as this summer. Her lawyer made a motion at the end of the trial for an acquittal and the judge said she will hear arguments March 7 on that motion.

"A hang is a win in our business," defense lawyer Steven Wells said. "There's disappointment in this verdict because it was not an out-and-out acquittal, but we live to fight another day."

The jurors quickly exited court without speaking to reporters. An alternate juror who came to the courthouse to hear the verdict said she was sorry there was no resolution in the case, but felt the issues were complex.

"On the conspiracy charge, I wasn't sure. On the other charges, I would say 'Not guilty,'" Liz Dilley, a 26-year-old bookkeeper said.

She said she felt Waterman pursued inappropriate relationships with Arrant and Radel to get attention and "knew about [the murder] to a certain extent."

But, she said, she was swayed by defense evidence that Waterman had not provided the men information about how to get into the house, including the location of a key the family kept outside for emergencies.

Dilley said that if Waterman was involved in the plan, she would have known about the key.