A Boulder County jury on Friday acquitted a University of Colorado student of second-degree murder in the death of classmate Sean Hudson that occurred after the two engaged in a brawl in downtown Boulder.
The verdict finding 23-year-old Ian Scheuermann not guilty came after three hours of deliberation and a week of testimony. Jurors had to consider whether Scheuermann was acting in self defense when the brawl ensued outside the Sundown Saloon on Dec. 3, 2015.
Jurors also acquitted Scheuermann of first-degree assault and felony menacing, a charge that prosecutors said stemmed from his alleged threatening of Hudson’s friend Jeremy Zellers with a knife.
Scheuermann was stoic as Boulder District Judge Ingrid Bakke read the verdict. He hugged his defense attorney, Lisa Wayne, as the jury filed out.
In her closing arguments Friday morning, Wayne urged the jurors to put themselves in Scheuermann’s position at the time, rather than analyzing the fight with the benefit of “sterility and hindsight.”
“That’s not what was going on in the dark on the corner that night,” Wayne said. “It was a planned attack that started from the steps of the Sundown Saloon, when they were scanning the crowd looking for Ian.”
Read the rest of the story about Scheuermann at the Daily Camera.
