Lenoir City resident acquitted o

A Union County jury Wednesday acquitted a Lenoir City man of killing his mother in October 2009.

Gregory A. Thompson, 58, was cleared in the death of Jacqueline Thompson, 74, following a two-day trial before Criminal Court Judge E. Shayne Sexton. Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before giving the verdict.

Thompson's mother was found dead at her Dark Hollow Road home in Andersonville on Oct. 23, 2009. Gregory Thompson, who had a methadone prescription, later told police he'd given his mother four pills the day before her death, said Assistant District Attorney Tracy Jenkins. Defense attorney John Boucher said the state argued his client killed his mother in hopes of inheriting her farm. But a probate witness, Boucher said, testified that the victim had no will when she died, so the farm went to her husband, Emory Thompson.

Medical Examiner Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan determined that the victim died from an overdose of four drugs in her system, including methadone and hydrocodone, Boucher said. A defense expert testified that the level of methadone in the victim would have had to have been double to be lethal.

Gregory Thompson had been in Union County Jail since his March 2009 arrest.

"I didn't do anything," he said. "Money is not my thing. For what the farm's worth, I would never hurt anyone, much less my parents."

Lenoir City resident acquitted on charge of killing his mother