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Alberta trucker not guilty in motel murder

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. — An Alberta trucker has been found not guilty of murdering a Saskatchewan woman who was found in a motel room with a belt around her neck.

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. — An Alberta trucker has been found not guilty of murdering a Saskatchewan woman who was found in a motel room with a belt around her neck.

An 11-member jury returned with the unanimous verdict after deliberating for about 4 1/2 hours over two days in a Battleford, Sask., courtroom.

Gordon Dwight Hurley was on trial for second-degree murder in the death of Jarita Naistus (NAY-stus), 20, from Onion Lake.

She was found in a motel room in Lloydminster on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary in October 2005.

It was Hurley’s second trial in the slaying — he was found guilty in 2007 but that verdict was overturned and a new trial was ordered.

Several of the victim’s family members rushed out of the courtroom, sobbing, when the verdict was read.