The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A jury has acquitted an Arkansas man of second-degree battery in the death of an Oklahoma police officer in a bar fight in Little Rock.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes Wednesday before finding Aaron Glenn Threlkeld not guilty.
Threlkeld was accused of throwing a punch that knocked Elzie Cain unconscious at the Electric Cowboy nightclub in September 2010. Cain, a police officer from Ardmore, Okla., fell to the ground and fractured his skull.
Threlkeld was not charged with anything more serious because prosecutors said they couldn’t prove he acted with murderous intent.
Prosecutors alleged Threlkeld was upset that his former girlfriend was dancing with Cain and hit him unprovoked.
Threlkeld testified he hit Cain in self-defense when Cain started to swing at him.