PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury has acquitted an Oregon man charged with murdering his wife after what was described as a suicide pact left her dead and him wounded.
The Portland couple had left a signed suicide note outlining their reasons for wanting to die on March 2, 2013.
Multnomah County jurors deliberated less than a day before returning their verdict Wednesday in the trial of Lloyd Erp. He and his wife, Lori, each suffered two bullet wounds to the head.
The Oregonian reports http://is.gd/XEwOu7 the 58-year-old man spent more than two years in jail awaiting disposition of his case.
A jury deadlocked in an earlier trial and a mistrial was declared.
Lloyd Erp testified that his wife shot herself before he took the rifle and tried to kill himself.
A defense lawyer told jurors the Erps were deeply in love, but suffered health problems, addictions to painkillers and were facing foreclosure on their home and homelessness because neither was making any income.