UPDATE: Accused Child Murderer ''Not Guilty''

The jury says that Brian Rutherford is "Not Guilty" of murdering or abusing his girlfriend's 18-month old daughter.

Earlier in closing arguments Hamilton County Assistant District Attorney Jay Woods told the jury Rutherford "shook Sierra Carpenter, he inflicted her death."

Woods spent a lot of time arguing that Rutherford was deceptive and lied about the events leading up to the child's death on April 27, 2006. He focused on an incident the day before she fell ill where Sierra appeared to have seizure-like symptoms and Rutherford ran with her to a neighbor's house for help. Sierra recovered and Rutherford did not immediately mention the episode to the child's mother, Traci Carpenter.

Rutherford told investigators he thought Sierra choked on a Pop Tart and that caused her to gasp for air. But Woods said Rutherford was deceptive about the event because he argues Rutherford abused Sierra and knew it would cause symptoms.

During the trial that spanned two weeks prosecutors never presented any physical evidence that Rutherford harmed Sierra.

Myrlene Marsa argued on behalf of Rutherford and said "no doubt this is a tragedy for Sierra, but this is also a tragedy for Brian who's sitting here."

"There's absolutely no direct evidence against Brian, there's absolutely no direct evidence he hurt Sierra." Marsa said.

Rutherford's attorney maintained that the physical evidence about Sierra's brain injuries as told by several doctors indicates Sierra died as the result of cumulative injuries that spanned over a period of time that goes back up to several weeks..

Marsa said the evidence in the trial shows a pattern of neglect and abuse by Carpenter, who testimony shows abused drugs and was often enraged because of bitter family disputes.

Marsa said despite evidence showing a pattern of abuse my Sierra's mother, Detective Brian Ashburn chose to focus on Rutherford, saying he "utterly failed to conduct an adequate investigation."

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