OCILLA, Ga. — A jury has found a man accused of killing a popular high school teacher in 2005 not guilty of murder.

Tara Grinstead vanished from rural Irwin County, Georgia. She was last seen leaving a cookout.

Ryan Duke had told investigators in 2017 he killed Grinstead and helped Bo Dukes burn her body.

Duke went as far as telling Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents details that had not been made public.

But when he took the witness stand during his trial, he insisted he was innocent and that it was his friend who had killed her.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the jury acquitted Duke of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and burglary but found him guilty of concealing a death.

Grinstead’s body has never been found. However, her DNA was found in bone fragments located in the area that Duke said she was burned.

Duke will be sentenced Monday.

BOSTON —

A Massachusetts man is now out of state custody after spending over two decades in prison for what the court is now calling a wrongful murder and armed robbery conviction.

James Lucien, 48, was serving a life sentence following his 1995 conviction, which was connected to the 1994 deadly shooting of 23-year-old Ryan Edwards.

Lucien had an emotional reunion with his family after Judge Robert Ullman cleared the convictions against him Tuesday in Suffolk County Superior Court.

"I feel good because I'm with my family now," Lucien said. "I've been waiting a whole 27 years for this, and now I have the opportunity to be free."

Dennis Toomey, Lucien's defense attorney, argued during Tuesday's hearing that the murder and robbery convictions against his client should be tossed because of an improper police investigation.

"The heart of our appellate argument here is that the jury simply did not hear evidence they could have used to acquit Mr. Lucien, so he didn't get due process," Toomey said.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said a former Boston police officer involved in Lucien's case, Det. John Brazil, participated in a sprawling corruption scheme from 1990 to 1996 with other officers, in which they conspired to lie, rob and steal from drug dealers by submitting false warrant applications and then seize cash, representing drug trade proceeds, and kept it for themselves.

"Almost everywhere we look in this case, there are serious problems," Special Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Jeanne Kempthorne said during Tuesday's hearing.

Family members of Ryan Edwards, the man shot and killed in 1994, opposed Lucien's release.

"I think it's horrible," said Dionne Richards, Edwards' sister. "Now he's free and there's nobody to help our family, and my brother's murder goes as another unsolved murder."

Ullman urged Edwards' family not to blame Lucien, but instead Brazil, who allegedly lied and tampered with evidence.

"It's clear to me that justice may not have been done as to the murder and armed robbery charges," the judge said.

According to the district attorney's office, Brazil cooperated in a federal investigation and testified against fellow criminals and disgraced Boston police detectives Kenneth Acerra and Walter Robinson, both of whom pled guilty. Brazil was given immunity in exchange for his testimony and served no time. He is currently collecting a pension.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Police arrested the suspect accused in a shooting death in Winton Terrace on Oct. 14.

Police arrested 39-year-old Recold Moore on charges of murder around 3 p.m. on Oct. 15.

Investigators said Moore killed 39-year-old Kenneth Milner.

Police responded to a shooting in the 80 block of Craft Street around 6:21 p.m. on Oct. 14. When officers arrived on scene, investigators found Moore shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cincinnati Police Department's Homicide Unit is still investigating the shooting. If you have any information, call the Homicide Unit at 1-513-352-3542

Video above from 2019: Simone Biles remarks on brother's caseAfter a mistrial was declared last month in the murder trial of Tevin Biles-Thomas, the brother of Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, a judge in Ohio acquitted Biles-Thomas of the charges against him in a retrial on Tuesday, court records show.Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg granted a Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal by the defense for lack of evidence, dismissing Biles-Thomas' murder charges and acquitting him of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault charges, court spokesperson Darren Toms said.Biles-Thomas was arrested in 2019 on charges of murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonious assault and perjury in connection with a New Year's Eve fatal shooting in Cleveland.On the night of the shooting, a group of uninvited guests walked into a home and a fight began, Ohio authorities previously said. That fight led to the shooting and multiple people were hit — two of whom died at the scene and a third who later died at a hospital.Cleveland police had identified Biles-Thomas as the shooter. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.Following the judge's ruling, a person in the gallery charged towards Biles-Thomas but was stopped by sheriff's deputies, Toms said, adding that "the Court thanks the Sheriff's Department for their assistance.""This was a horrible tragedy, three families lost three family members and you know, absolutely horrific. So, we understand emotions were running high," Biles-Thomas attorney, Joe Patituce, said."But today, Tevin Biles was vindicated, what he's waited to get for the last two and half years."Patituce added that Biles-Thomas has maintained his innocence for the last two and a half years "because he is frankly innocent of these charges and today we were able to see that the state had absolutely no evidence that he was guilty of this offense."