An Alberta truck driver is free after a 12-person jury acquitted him Tuesday of second-degree murder.
Gordon Dwight Hurley, 46, was re-tried in connection to the strangulation death of 20-year-old Jarita Naistus in a Lloydminster motel room in 2005.
Following a relatively short deliberation period which spanned Monday night and Tuesday morning, the jury at Queen's Bench court in Battleford returned a not guilty verdict.
The trial lasted a little over two weeks. Hurley was previously convicted of second-degree murder in a 2007, and had been serving time in a federal penitentiary.
That verdict was overturned on appeal when the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled the original trial judge erred in the charge to the jury.
The Crown relied heavily on DNA evidence linking Hurley to the crime scene to make their case for conviction.
However, defence lawyer Morris Bodnar strenuously fought on Hurley's behalf for an acquittal. Bodnar went so far as to argue there was other evidence from the scene that could possibly link Naistus's lover, not Hurley, to the murder.
