Read more: Local, Miles, Ferguson, Morgan, Martin, Attorney, Baby, Mylee, Homicide, Child, Abuse, Myrtle, Beach, Ohio, Vacation, 2005
An Horry County jury acquitted the Ohio man who police and prosecutors said shook to death his five-week-old daughter, Mylee Ferguson, in July 2007.
After listening to almost two weeks of testimony, the jury was handed the case around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Four hours later, they returned the not guilty verdict for Miles Ferguson.
Ferguson wept as the jury read the verdict, and as the jurors walked out, he repeatedly mouthed 'thank you.'
Outside of the court room, close to 100 supporters flanked Ferguson and his wife Ashlee who shared tears and smiles as the group formed a circle around the couple and sang 'Amazing Grace.'
Ferguson declined comment other than to say, "Praise be to the Lord." No mention was made of Mylee.
Miles, his wife and daughter were vacationing in Myrtle Beach on July 29, 2007, when Miles reported to 911 his daughter was unconscious. She died Aug. 2, 2007, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
Police charged Ferguson with homicide by child abuse, and prosecutors presented numerous experts who said Mylee died of injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. During his trial, Miles admitted he shook his daughter but only after she became unconscious. He said he was trying to get her to respond.
Ferguson's attorney, Morgan Martin, put up just as many experts who testified Mylee died from an underlying medical condition, though the prosecution said Mylee was perfectly healthy before her death.
"This young man wasn't guilty, and he's lived a nightmare for the past two years," Martin said shortly after the verdict.
Martin continued, "The stress they've been under is immeasurable, and I'm just so happy for them. His family needs him, and the last place in the world he needs to be is the penitentiary."
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