Ray Lewis' Friends Found Innocent

A jury found two friends of football star Ray Lewis innocent of murder and assault charges Monday in the stabbings of two men after a post-Super Bowl party.

The jury deliberated less than five hours before returning the verdicts in the trial of Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley.

Oakley hugged attorney his attorney, Bruce Harvey, who pumped his fist in exuberance when the verdicts were announced. Sweeting leaned over and put his head on the defense table.

Sweeting, Oakley and Lewis were charged with murder, felony murder and aggravated assault in the Jan. 31 deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar, who were stabbed outside a post-Super Bowl party in Atlanta's Buckhead entertainment district.

Lewis, a Baltimore Ravens linebacker, reached a plea agreement with District Attorney Paul Howard last week. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction of justice charge, testified against Oakley and Sweeting, and will serve a year of probation, but no jail time.

"The irony of this case is the only person convicted in this case was Ray Lewis," Harvey said.

Lewis, 25, practiced with the Ravens Monday at a voluntary minicamp.

Sweeting, a longtime friend of Lewis' from Miami, was charged with Lollar's death. Oakley, an acquaintance Lewis knew from Baltimore, was charged with Baker's death.

Both faced life in prison if convicted, but the jury found them innocent on all counts.

Families of the victims gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom.

"This is ridiculous," said Faye Lollar, Lollar's aunt. "That money sure did buy a lot of people. All that blood... I don't believe this."

Baker and Lollar were stabbed during a street fight that erupted around 4 a.m. as the nightclubs in the Buckhead district were closing after the Super Bowl.

Evidence showed Baker started the brawl by hitting Oakley in the head with a champagne bottle. Sweeting tried to help Oakley, but never made it because two large men attacked him and dragged him behind a tree, Lewis testified. Lewis said he then saw Sweeting regain his footing and start throwing punches and fighting back.

Lewis said Oakley and another member of Lewis' group, Carlos Stafford, were fighting with Baker. He said Oakley punched Baker four or five times in the chest while Stafford was kicking him.

Lewis was the only witness to put a knife in anyone's hand. He testified that Sweeting, Oakley and another friend, Kwame King, bought knives at a sporting goods store one day before the Super Bowl.

He also told the jury that he demanded an explanation from Sweeting after the fight ended. Sweeting showed him a knife, made punching motions with it and said, "Every time they hit me, I hit them," Lewis testified.

In closing arguments, the district attorney admitted that no witness saw Sweeting or Oakley stab anyone in the street brawl. Instead, Howard insisted there was enough circumstntial evidence to warrant a murder conviction.

Sweeting's attorney, John Bergendahl told the jury that the real killer was King, whom Bergendahl called "the man in black." He said King, who has never appeared in court, had a large knife and matched the descriptions several witnesses gave.

Three other men in Lewis' rented limousine -- Stafford and two men known only as Gino and Claudus -- also never appeared in court during three weeks of testimony.

The linebacker's legal fees and expenses will exceed $1 million, but the deal will enable him to keep intact his $26 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens.