Ottawa ? After deliberating about six hours over two days, a Franklin County jury Friday decided an Overbrook man was innocent of second-degree murder.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, John Powell, 45, was freed from the Franklin County Jail where he had been held on $500,000 bond for last summer’s death of Barney Riley, 39, Lawrence.

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Powell had been accused of hitting Riley in the head and neck with a baseball bat. Franklin County Attorney John Dowell said the murder took place at the home of Powell’s brother, Mike Powell, near Centropolis.

Riley’s body was found by children on June 11, 2001, in a Franklin County field. Powell maintained Riley had been drinking and passed out. He said he put Riley in the back of a pickup truck intending to take him to Lawrence but ended up unloading him by a tree in a field because he needed to get to work. Riley was still alive at the time, he said.

Powell and his attorney Robert Kuchar, Olathe, said Riley had been drinking for several days and had been fighting with a girlfriend who had beaten him.