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Halifax man who spent nearly eight years in jail freed after jury acquits on murder

HALIFAX — A Halifax man who was found not guilty last week in his second-degree murder retrial has been released from custody.
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A Halifax man who was found not guilty last week in his second-degree murder retrial has been released from custody. Defence lawyer Desireé Jones-Matthias, right, looks on as her colleague. Trevor McGuigan, walks through the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Dartmouth, N.S., Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Tutton

HALIFAX — A Halifax man who was found not guilty last week in his second-degree murder retrial has been released from custody.

Randy Riley was originally convicted in 2018 in the shooting of Chad Smith, who died from a shotgun blast while delivering a pizza on Oct. 23, 2010.

Riley was incarcerated for about seven years and eight months after his arrest in 2013.

During the recent retrial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court, key witnesses said they had changed their stories since their 2018 testimony, and last Thursday the jury took less than four hours to find Riley not guilty.

Riley's lawyer, Trevor McGuigan, says his client was released Friday after a hearing in provincial court on charges of breaching bail, impaired driving and resisting a police officer laid in relation to an incident on Oct. 1.

McGuigan says his client's bail had been revoked due to the charges, but after Thursday's verdict, the provincial court arranged to have a hearing moved up to Friday, and Riley was released.

The next hearing on the charges against Riley is now set for early November.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2023.

The Canadian Press

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