Elizabeth Holmes trial: Jurors focus on secret audio recording during deliberations

Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan discusses jury deliberations in the Elizabeth Holmes trial after Christmas break and the many charges against the former Theranos CEO.

Video transcript

- About every day at this time I say the same thing, we have Alexis Keenan. Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan standing by as the jury deliberations of the Elizabeth Holmes trial keep going on here. So Alexis, I was thinking, you probably had something to talk about over the table over the weekend but nevertheless, I'm thinking the jurors, well, they couldn't say anything, they must have had a tough time here. I'm wondering what the latest developments are here today.

ALEXIS KEENAN: Hi Jarred, yes indeed. I imagine it is incredibly difficult as a juror to avoid the wealth of press surrounding this very closely watched trial. This is day number four of deliberations that got underway this morning just after 9 o'clock in the morning Pacific time to decide this very rare case, to test the boundaries of hype against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of her failed blood diagnostics company Theranos that she ran for just about 15 years.

Now so far we have had just a sliver of insight into one single piece of evidence that jurors have found to be important. Jurors asked just before they closed deliberations on Thursday to hear a secret audio recording of Holmes when she was pitching a group of investors in 2013. And that time frame is shortly after Theranos launched its blood testing services and its Walgreens store locations.

Now jurors heard Holmes say, when asked if there was a military aspect for Theranos that the company intended to pursue, Holmes says on one hand that the military is a big deal for the company and that confidentially she could talk about a couple of areas in which the company was focused on one hand in the context, she says of work in the Middle East and specifically in Afghanistan.

Also she said they had been doing a lot of work for Special Operations Command. On the other hand Holmes is also heard saying that the company had to pause a large number of its ongoing military programs as well as its pharmaceutical operations so that it could focus more closely on its Walgreens and other retail services.

And also the company was executing on those pharmaceutical and military businesses they said that they would leverage those more looking into the future. So on the one hand, you hear this contrast. And differently three different investors testified during the trial that Holmes told them that the technology was already in use by the military.

Holmes said on the stand and counter to that, that she was trying to convey that the company was doing a lot of work on developing the device for these different avenues, including on medevac helicopters, but that the company was not actually having those in use by the military at that time.

So as those who have been following this case know, prosecutors are saying, no, Holmes went way too far over selling the technology, both in the military and pharmaceutical aspects as well as in other representations about how well the technology works. But you get a sense here of what jurors have to parse through, 900 plus pieces of evidence but so far we've seen just this one that we know they were focused on here. Karina and Jarred.

- Yeah, and Alexis, I'm beginning to wonder if we see any resolution, if we see a verdict before the end of this year or we're going to have to wait till next year. And as you were saying, you know, Holmes herself took to the stand for seven days trying to paint herself as this really well-meaning entrepreneur, but what if she is not successful and she happens to be found guilty on even one of the charges?

ALEXIS KEENAN: So I think we have a full screen that I hope you can show of the various charges. There were originally 12 counts, we're down to 11, one was dropped. But there are nine counts of wire fraud that carry 20 years in prison and $250,000 each in fines, also two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

If there is a guilty verdict on any single one of these charges, and remember the jury does not have to say it's an all or nothing deal here, they go methodically through each and one of these charges, if they do find her guilty on any of them, significantly there are 20 years of potential prison sentence attached to any single one of them.

One of the major factors that can really influence that sentence though, once the sentencing guidelines and the judge's discretion are both applied, is the amount of money that the victims lost. So these different transactions range in the multi millions of dollars, which tends to bump up the number of years that a defendant, if they're found guilty, could be held in prison. So really serious charges here. I'm sure as the day goes on, this is incredibly nerve wracking for both sides.

- And hopefully not you but we do appreciate your vigilance here. Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan.