They still don't know when the water — as much as a gallon, according to medical testimony — was forced on Cassandra. They knew Richard Killpack came home from church-related visits that Sunday night to find Cassandra tussling with her mother. He stopped the fighting by holding Cassandra's hands behind her back, but the collaboration of three witnesses convinced the jury that the parents did not force Cassandra to drink any water at that time.

The girl had been forced to consume water at an earlier time, and there was no evidence Richard Killpack was there for any of it.

"The question was, on June 9th, 2002, did Mr. Killpack recklessly cause or permit the child abuse that led to Cassandra's death?" the jurors said in their statement.

The answer, they said, was no.

They were frustrated there was no charge they could use to convict Richard Killpack, even though they believed they had enough evidence to convict him of child abuse.

Prosecutors initially also charged the Killpacks with child abuse. The charge was related to emotional suffering prosecutors said Cassandra's 7-year-old sister suffered because her mother sent her to get rope to tie Cassandra's hands behind her back. Cassandra was being punished after she allegedly sipped from another sister's drink.

But Judge James Taylor dismissed the abuse charge after a preliminary hearing, ruling prosecutors hadn't proved severe emotional trauma. Prosecutors chose not to refile the charge.

The jurors were devastated that their decision could put Jennete Killpack in prison for up to 15 years. She will be sentenced Dec. 7.

"To take a mother away from her children . . . " one juror said with her head in her hands.

"It was so unsettling," another said. "I felt like we couldn't give out the verdict we should. But the law didn't allow us to do more."

Jennete Killpack's attorney, Mike Esplin, has said the introduction of evidence of prior acts of child abuse might have tainted the jury and might be grounds for appeal.

"It didn't have anything to do with our verdict," one of the jurors said.

"If it did," a male juror added, "then Rick would have been guilty."

They called the possibility of an appeal of Jennete Killpack's conviction "ridiculous."

They also said the six-week trial was an ordeal made bearable by an unusual closeness that developed between the jurors. It was hard not to discuss the case with their spouses and, in the case of one juror, with co-workers who knew the Killpacks. But it was especially difficult not to discuss it with each other until after all the testimony was completed.

Some are relaxed about their decision. Others were glad to gather Sunday and find some closure. One said she still lives with the case every day, and another said her spouse has worried she gave in to the others.