Jurors believed the defendant not the witnesses Thursday and freed a 22-year-old military veteran of a felony charge that he was responsible for a bulldozer running through a church on U.S. 80 the day before Halloween 2004.

Family and friends of Zane Bearrick reacted with glee after Warren County Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick ended the three-day trial by announcing the acquittal at 4 p.m.

The Rev. Robert L. Lewis Jr. of Ferriday, La., pastor of the Assembly of Yahweh-Vicksburg, and three church members were also in the courtroom. They declined comment.

District Attorney Gil Martin, who had planned to seek an enhanced penalty for the crime, was stunned, adding the credibility of prosecution witnesses was obviously a problem.

&#8220They could not have believed the witnesses we presented or they wouldn’t have acquitted him,” Martin said.

Bearrick, accused of felony malicious mischief and held in jail since his arrest on Oct. 31, 2004, testified Thursday he had never set foot on the church property at 3820 U.S. 80, east of Vicksburg.

On Wednesday, two others, Joey Ables, 21, who said Bearrick and he were best friends; and Regina Slay, 22, of Biloxi, a houseguest of Ables’ and a first-time visitor to Vicksburg, both testified they had seen Bearrick on the bulldozer just before it went through the church building, a mobile home.

Another witness who said he was a longtime friend of Ables’ and Bearrick’s, Colby Stevens, 18, of Brandon, had also testified that he had been told Bearrick caused the damage.

&#8220Joey and Regina are lying,” defense attorney T.K. Byrne of Clinton told jurors in his closing argument, adding that he did not know why they were lying. &#8220Colby’s just along for the ride because he doesn’t know any better.”

Bearrick is white and the church’s members are nearly all black. Seven jurors were white and five were black, but Martin said all jurors agreed on the acquittal after only an hour of deliberation.

The indictment carried a possible five-year sentence, but Martin said he had planned to invoke a 1994 Mississippi hate-crime law in a separate, sentencing phase that could have doubled the penalty to 10 years and a $20,000 fine.

A group, which also included Slay’s infant son, had gathered at the home Ables shares with his parents on Columbus Road, south of U.S. 80 across from the church.

The damage was reported to authorities by Slay at 3:03 a.m. from a pay phone at a convenience store, she testified.

Both Ables and Slay testified that Bearrick left the group for about 45 minutes to an hour beginning at about 1:45 a.m. and then returned, urging them to go with him to the church site to see what he had done. The three said they went to the site, with Stevens staying behind with Slay’s child.

There they saw the bulldozer with its engine running and its blade having punctured a side of the mobile home, they testified. Ables told Bearrick to shut off the bulldozer, they testified.

Bearrick climbed on the bulldozer and its engine began to race, Ables testified. Bearrick was thrown off and the bulldozer went through the church, running into and being stopped by the slab, Ables testified.

Bearrick then returned to the Ables’ home and departed on his motorcycle.

The church was on property owned by contractor and church member Fred Clark on the north side of U.S. 80. The church had begun meeting at the site in August 2004 and a concrete slab had been poured beside the church for a planned permanent structure.

The bulldozer, also Clark’s, was parked with a key in its ignition about 200 yards north of that site.

Bearrick testified he did not return to the Ables’ home after his 1:45 a.m. departure. He went instead to the Beechwood Restaurant & Lounge, 4451 Clay St., and then to his home on Bridlewood Drive.

Detective Todd Dykes of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department responded to the 3:03 a.m. call and returned to the scene about 8 a.m., he testified.

Formal statements were taken from Ables and Slay that day beginning between noon and 1 p.m. and Bearrick was arrested after.

Byrne led his closing argument with an assertion he had also stressed in his opening statement, that &#8220law enforcement took the path of least resistance in this investigation.”

Bearrick testified that he was booked into the jail by Dykes.

&#8220He told me I was being arrested for malicious mischief,” Bearrick said. &#8220He asked me if there was something I wanted to tell him.” Bearrick said he first learned what had happened to the church from a newspaper report the next day.

As authorities said is customary with attacks on churches, the FBI was also called to investigate and agents also took statements from witnesses, including Ables and Slay.

Bearrick told the jury he was a Warren Central graduate who enlisted in the U.S. Army and served an eight-month tour in Pakistan, earning four medals or awards. He said he remained in the service, with the Mississippi National Guard’s 114th Military Police and that he planned to enroll in college.

The day the damage occurred Bearrick was a resident of Hattiesburg, he told the jury. He had returned home for repairs to his truck and to retrieve high-school transcripts for his planned enrollment as a university student, he added.

&#8220The person that wrecked Pastor Lewis’ church needs to be strung up,” Byrne said following the trial.

Bearrick would go back to the National Guard and to college, Byrne added.

&#8220He sat in jail 16 months to prove his innocence,” Byrne said. &#8220I’d like to thank the citizens of Warren County.”