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"The jury deliberated about 7 1/2 hours before returning a verdict."By Patrick M. O'Connell One of the youngest people in Missouri to be charged as an adult with murder was found not guilty Thursday. Owen Welty, 15, was accused of using a hunting rifle to shoot his neighbor, Don McCollough, 64, in 2006. Welty, who was 13 at the time, was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. The shooting took place on McCollough's farm in Stoddard County, near Dexter, but a change of venue moved the trial to St. Louis County Circuit Court. The jury deliberated about 7 1/2 hours before returning a verdict. Welty, wearing glasses and a suit and tie, did not visibly react when Judge John A. Ross read the jury's decision. He accepted handshakes from his attorneys as his family quietly wept and clasped hands. As he exited the door at the back of the courtroom, Welty cracked a small smile. "I'm just glad we finally got some justice," said Welty's father, Ronnie. McCollough's family left the courthouse without talking to reporters. Prosecutors admitted the case was largely circumstantial, with no eyewitnesses and little evidence from the scene. But they stressed that witnesses saw Welty, armed with a hunting rifle for shooting turkeys, near the McCollough farm around the time a shot rang out. The prosecution said the Nov. 14, 2006, shooting stemmed from a disagreement between McCollough and the Welty family over the death of one of McCollough's bulls a few weeks before. "We're very disappointed in the verdict," Assistant Prosecutor Rance Butler said outside the courthouse. "We knew going in it was going to be a tough case, a very circumstantial case." But Butler said, "I think everybody involved in this case since Nov. 14, 2006, is convinced that Owen Welty committed the offense." Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum said Welty "is going home. It's where he belongs." Welty, who did not testify, has been jailed since 2006. Paperwork on his release was being completed Thursday night. Prosecutor Briney Welborn pointed to online chat comments posted hours after the shooting in which Welty wrote about his concern for McCollough and his belief that his neighbor had been shot. Those comments were made online hours before McCollough's body was discovered. Welty had told his family he had heard a shot near McCollough's home, testimony at the trial established. After the trial, Butler said that McCollough had made a call to the sheriff the morning of the shooting expressing concern about his safety because of the feud with the Welty family. That was not included in trial testimony. Ballistics testing from the bullet fragment in the case was inconclusive. Rosenblum said investigators barely looked into rumors that McCollough may have been having an affair or problems at work. Investigators, Rosenblum said, never considered that Welty may not have done it. "They wouldn't have it that way," he said. "It didn't fit their theory." | |
PDI Investigation Team Clears Teenager of