SHALIMAR - A mistrial was averted Friday in the trial of accused quadruple murderer Jeffrey Hutchinson after a restaurant patron told the jury that she hoped they would "hang him."

Also Friday, a longtime acquaintance of the defendant's testified that she now believes Hutchinson is guilty of murdering his girlfriend and her three children.

Hutchinson, 38, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Sept. 11, 1998 murders of Renee Flaherty, 32, and her children, Geoffrey, 9, Amanda, 7, and Logan, 4. They were gunned down in the John King Road home that he shared with them near Crestview.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

The comment to jurors came during a lunch break in the lobby of the Black Angus Restaurant, where jurors were heading up a stairway to a private second-floor dining room, one of the jurors told a bailiff.

The bailiff, in turn, reported the remark to Okaloosa Circuit Judge G. Robert Barron, who held a hearing to determine if the jury had been influenced by the "improper comment."

"While we were going up the stairs to the second floor, an elderly lady, in her 60s or 70s, seeing us walking in, said 'I hope you're on the jury of the Hutchinson trial, and if you are, I hope you hang him,' " the juror told the judge, with the rest of the jury out of the courtroom.

"She was a patron waiting to pay her bill and leave. I've never seen her before."

Two other jurors acknowledged hearing something similar, but neither could recall seeing the woman. Both also were quizzed individually by the judge.

Although all three jurors who heard the remark said it would not affect their ability to continue hearing the case impartially, defense lawyer Stephen Cobb sought to remove them from the jury.

Had that request been granted by the judge, and with only two alternate jurors available, only 11 members would have remained on the jury, possibly creating a mistrial. Cobb also moved outright for a mistrial, saying that because a fourth of the jury had been exposed to the comment, it was "not possible to put it out of their minds."

However, Barron ruled, "This jury is in no way tainted and their impartiality has not been compromised," adding that he would instruct the panel to disregard what they heard in the restaurant.

Also Friday, an ailing juror was excused when it became apparent his flu-like symptoms would prevent him from continuing his service. As a result, the panel now has only one alternate available.

In other developments, prosecutor Bobby Elmore continued layering his case against Hutchinson, one witness at a time.

He called Deanna Adams, whose family was close to Hutchinson, Flaherty and her children, frequently visiting and socializing with them.

She and her husband, Joel Creighton Adams, also visited him weekly at the Okaloosa County Jail and, for about a year, relayed messages to his family, helped to document his Persian Gulf War service,

and contacted his former Army friends, among other services.

But their enthusiasm faded, Adams testified, as authorities charged a mutual friend of theirs with a Paxton bank robbery, later dismissing the charges, and for a while turned their suspicions on her husband, who was never charged.

While dealing with that pressure, she said, "I was overwhelmed by Jeff's requests." Then in a lawyer's office, Adams said, she overheard the 911 call tape from the John King Road house the night Flaherty and the children were killed.

She testified that she recognized the voice on the 911 tape as Hutchinson's.

"I honestly felt like the state was after me and my family for helping Jeff," Adams testified. "I told him, 'I honestly can't talk with you anymore. My family comes first.' "

Although she clung to wanting to believe in Hutchinson's innocence in the months that followed his arrest, Adams said, "Reality just took over. From the night he was arrested, there was a different look on his face. I realized he had killed his wife and kids. I never wanted to believe it."

Explaining why no other suspects were sought in the case, former Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Michael Stewart told Cobb under cross-examination Friday that Hutchinson "was the only one at the residence alive. He had blood on him. He was the only suspect I had."

Stewart and former Deputy Neil Woodward, both caught up in a sex scandal last year, were the deputies who took Hutchinson from the John King Road home to the county jail the night of the killings.

"Hunting other suspects was not part of my job," Stewart told Cobb during the defense lawyer's questioning.

Testimony resumes this morning, starting at 8:30 a.m., in Courtroom D at the Shalimar courthouse annex.