Jurors weighing charges against three men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris told the judge overseeing the case Wednesday that they could not reach agreement on the most serious charges of murder, but were instructed to try again.

The jurors told retired Baltimore Circuit Judge David Ross that they had been unable to arrive at a consensus on charges of first- and second-degree murder against Gary Collins, 22, Jerome Williams, 17, and Charles McGaney, 22. The three face counts on more than two dozen crimes connected to the Sept. 20, 2008, robbery of the New Haven Lounge during which Harris was killed.

The shooting of the 45-year-old Harris, who was married with two children and had served eight years on the City Council, brought a violent end to the life of a man much admired for his rise from a childhood in a rough Park Heights neighborhood to prominence in the halls of municipal power.