A Criminal Court jury on Wednesday afternoon found both Thomas "Butch" Wallace, 25, and his wife, Samantha "Sambo" Wallace, 28, not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
They had been charged in connection with the death of their two-year-old daughter, Camron Michelle Dawn Wallace.
She was shot to death by her five-year-old step-brother on July 12, 2010, on Tinsley Place off E. 19th Street.
Thomas Wallace took the witness stand, while his wife did not testify. He said he had put the gun used in the tragic shooting in a nightstand drawer because of fear about home invaders. The boy was in the parents' bedroom because a window in his bedroom was broken.
He said on a Friday night prior to the Monday shooting there had been several black males knock on their door around 2 or 3 a.m. He said there were others in the yard and more in the car they had driven up in. He said he told the group to leave and they did.
The witness, who cried often during his testimony, said after that he began taking the gun down from a closet shelf at night and putting it back up the next morning. But he said that Monday he slept late and was 15 minutes late for work. He said it "slipped my mind" to put up the replica Colt 45 that day.
He said his wife had given him the gun for Father's Day in 2009.
He told of getting 22s for his other daughter, age four, and the five-year-old boy and taking them to woods on Suck Creek Mountain to show them how to shoot them. He said he taught them as his grandfather had taught him - standing behind them, holding the gun and letting them pull the trigger.
Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Metcalfe told the jury in the courtroom of Judge Rebecca Stern that the child was shot at very close range. He said her hand was close to the area of her chest where she was shot, and the bullet grazed her hand. There was gray powder residue on the hand.
A city officer said he and a firefighter put the girl on a couch and tried to revive her, but never brought her back to consciousness or got a pulse.
Angela Allen, who works at Haynes and Haynes tire firm where Thomas Wallace works, said he was at work when the mother called. The firm is located close to the house the couple was renting.
She said Ms. Wallace said to "tell Butch to get home right away. They've shot my baby."
Ms. Allen said Thomas Wallace took off running for the house and the owner's son jumped in a vehicle to head in that direction.
Bob Haynes, the owner, said the couple had been renting from him. He said they had not complained about the back door that would not latch or the broken front door deadbolt.
He said he was aware that the boy had broken the bedroom window.
Gloria Hammond, a worker with state Children's services, said she was present when Ms. Wallace was interviewed. She said the children had been given guns and taught how to use them by her husband.
She said there had been black males on their porch a short time earlier, though they had not tried to break in.