EDMONTON - A Fort Smith man has been found not guilty on a charge of second-degree murder in Edmonton.

Augustine Darren Poitras, 43, heard the verdict on Feb. 25 following a jury trial in the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta.

The jury deliberated 26 hours before returning with its decision.

Poitras was charged with stabbing a 42-year-old man on July 1, 2009, at a transit terminal in downtown Edmonton.

Dino Bottos, Poitras's lawyer, said his client was "very relieved" with the verdict.

Poitras is not speaking to the media.

However, as he was leaving the Edmonton Remand Centre on Feb. 25, Poitras made brief comments to TV news crews.

"It's been a rough trip for nothing, you know," he said. "Thanks to the Edmonton Police Service for their great investigation and incompetence."

In Fort Smith, his father, David Poitras, was also relieved by the verdict.

"It's very obvious they got the wrong guy," he said about the case against his son, who divides his time between Edmonton and Fort Smith.

The elder Poitras was referring to what he saw on a grainy, nighttime surveillance video of the incident at the bus stop.

The elder Poitras blames Edmonton police for not properly investigating the killing.

"It was very obvious the police didn't want to work to find whoever did that," he said. "They wanted an open and shut case."

Bottos noted there were probably 50 people in the vicinity at the time of the incident, but none could say they saw a weapon in Poitras' hand.

Of the 14 civilian witnesses at trial, he said they could talk about seeing Poitras appearing upset that his wife was flirting with another man. However, he noted the other man was not the victim, but the victim's friend.

Bottos said the video shows Poitras was not the killer as two frames of the video show Poitras, wearing a grey hoodie and a grey ball cap, striking or punching the victim, who falls to the ground but gets back up.

"He's the last man to touch the deceased," Bottos said. "So the police thought he must be the guy."

However, the lawyer said police ignored something that happened three seconds before Poitras struck the victim, Shane Howarth.

Bottos said the victim was in a "scrum or a melee" beside Poitras, but not involving him.

"That is the deceased is physically engaged with a third person," the lawyer said. "That third person we say is the stabber, and that third person is seen to emerge from the scrum with no one really noticing him with what I say is the glint of something hanging down from his left hand down his left pant leg, which could be a knife."

Bottos said the third person can be seen walking past a garbage can where the murder weapon is later found. "Furthermore, the video depicts this man extending his arm out over the garbage can as he's walking by the garbage can."

That man, an acquaintance of Poitras, has been missing for months.

Poitras went to police nine days after the incident, following media reports describing a man in a grey hoodie, and said he was that person.

After his 2009 arrest he remained in jail until the not-guilty verdict late last month.

However, he has always maintained he didn't stab the victim.

Bottos said Poitras gave police the name of the person he believes to be the stabber.

"The police don't believe him," he said. "They do a very poor job of investigating this other suspect, and then lay a charge against Mr. Poitras."

A spokesperson for the Edmonton Police Service said the department will not comment about the homicide trial or its investigation until after the 30-day appeal period.

A decision on whether to appeal will be made by Crown prosecutors.

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