On the other side of the courtroom, the family of the defendant began to applaud quietly. The defendant's aunt, Ruth Fail, gasped and began shaking. James Smallwood, the defendant's older brother, stood and hugged a man behind him.
The jury was presented with the case at noon and announced at 1:10 p.m. that a verdict had been reached.
The sounds of sobbing were heard from the moment the first verdict was announced in the packed courtroom, ringed by sheriff's deputies. As each verdict was read, the crying spread from relative to relative of the stunned McGuigan family.
McGuigan, 36, was a passenger in her fiance's car on the Schuylkill Expressway around 8 a.m. Jan. 11, 1994, when a motorist, angry that McGuigan's boyfriend had made an obscene gesture at him, pointed a .38-caliber handgun out his car window and fired two shots, striking McGuigan in the right temple and killing her.
Smallwood, a former Bryn Mawr College bus driver from North Philadelphia, was arrested and charged with the shooting after McGuigan's fiance, and another motorist that morning, identified him as the driver.
The defense, on the other hand, presented four witnesses who said Smallwood was not near the crime scene when the shooting took place.
Yesterday, Smallwood, after spending 2 1/2 years in jail awaiting trial, walked out a free man after being acquitted of murder, aggravated assault and related charges.
A short time later, he was sitting in his lawyer's office with his children, brother, cousin and aunt.
``I feel exceptional,'' he said. ``I feel as though justice was served. I'm very tired. I would just like to go home and be with my loved ones and go to church.''
`I'M NOT ANGRY'
Smallwood said, ``I'm not angry with anyone. I feel sympathy toward the McGuigans. They have suffered, and the real killer is still out there.
