Woman guilty in Coke trial

Joya Williams faces up to 10 years in prison. No sentencing date was immediately set.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 11-1/2 hours over three days. On Thursday, the jurors told U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester they were ?hung? and could not decide. Forrester told the jury to try again Friday.

Williams was fired as a secretary to Coca-Cola?s global brand director at the company?s Atlanta headquarters after the allegations came to light.

The government said Williams stole confidential documents and samples of products that hadn?t been launched from The Coca-Cola Co. and gave them to Ibrahim Dimson and Edmund Duhaney as part of a conspiracy to sell the items to Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. for at least $1.5 million.

Dimson and Duhaney have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Duhaney testified previously that Williams spearheaded the scheme. Dimson did not testify.

The government said Williams was deeply in debt, unhappy in her job and seeking a big payday, so she embarked on the scheme to steal trade secrets.

During two days on the stand, Williams testified that she didn’t steal anything from Coke, but rather took documents and product samples home to protect herself in case her boss questioned whether she was doing her job.

She also claimed that $4,000 in cash she deposited into her bank account in June 2006, just days after Dimson was given $30,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for Coke materials, came from a friend, not from Dimson.

But the friend, Clifton Carroll, testified Tuesday that Williams was lying. He said the most money he ever loaned her was $400, and that was after her July 5 arrest.

Juror Rodney Brown said that when the jury broke Thursday after saying it was deadlocked, the members were split down the middle.