Missouri,United States

The jury leader in the trial of a Missouri woman accused of an Internet hoax that ended in a teenage neighbor's suicide said most panelists favored convicting the defendant of felony conspiracy.

But the jurors convicted Lori Drew only on federal misdemeanor charges because they were unable to agree on whether the MySpace hoax was malicious, forewoman Valentina Kunasz told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday.

A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted Wednesday of three minor offenses instead of the main conspiracy charge in a cruel Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide.

The federal jury could not reach a verdict on the conspiracy allegation against 49-year-old Lori Drew and rejected three other felony counts of accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm on the girl.

Jury deliberations were under way Tuesday in the landmark case against Lori Drew, a suburban Missouri mother charged with conspiracy and computer fraud in a MySpace hoax that led to the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier.

After three days of testimony by more than a dozen witnesses, including Megan's mother, Tina Meier; Drew's assistant, Ashley Grills; and computer forensic experts, the case went to the jury of six men and six women ranging in age from the mid-20s to the 70s.

A Missouri woman knew her 13-year-old neighbor was depressed and suicidal when she sent cruel Internet messages to the teenager, her former assistant testified. The girl killed herself after being told the world would be better off without her.

The trial of a Missouri woman charged in a tragic MySpace hoax resumed Thursday. Testimony began Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the controversial trial of Lori Drew, who is charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of computer fraud.

The charges stem from her alleged participation in a MySpace hoax which may have caused the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier. Drew is being tried under the Computer Abuse and Fraud Act.

The trial of the closely watched case involving a Missouri mother who allegedly started a hoax on MySpace resulting in a teenage girl's suicide is set to start as the court begins jury selection.

Lori Drew will be on trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. She is being prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Drew's daughter, a minor, and her now-19-year-old employee Ashley Grills are also accused of participating in the hoax.

Lori Drew garnered headlines after being painted as a vindictive mother whose online actions allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide.

But when jury selection begins Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal courtroom, a judge said he would instruct jurors that the case is about whether the 49-year-old Missouri mother violated the terms of service of the MySpace social networking site, not about whether she caused the suicide of Megan Meier.