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A Utah jury acquitted Orem businessman Stephen Strate of murder in September 2011, finding that his fatal 2009 shooting of his brother-in-law, Marvin Sidwell, was self-defense.

Strate, then 56, called 911 on Oct. 25, 2009, and told the dispatcher he had killed someone, saying Sidwell "came at me with a damn chair." Police said Strate fired seven rounds at the 51-year-old Sidwell in the basement of the Orem home Strate owned with his wife, Sidwell's sister. Five rounds struck Sidwell, who lived there with his mother.

Prosecutors in Utah's 4th District Court said Strate had grown fed up with Sidwell's erratic behavior and confronted him after a neighbor complained that Sidwell had scrawled a threatening chalk message on a driveway, fearing the family home would be sold. They argued the 200-pound Strate was the aggressor against the 140-pound Sidwell, who backed away holding a metal stool when he was shot.

Defense attorney Ron Yengich told jurors Sidwell was paranoid and high on methamphetamine that day and had a bedroom Strate described as a "weapons warehouse," stocked with guns, blowguns and crossbows. Strate, who had carried a handgun since 1997, when his brother was attacked at a shop in American Fork, testified he fired only after Sidwell came at him with the stool.

Strate testified that he and Sidwell had long been close and that he was often the one who calmed his brother-in-law down. He wept on the stand recounting the shooting and said afterward that he had known "from day one" it was justified.

Jurors deliberated less than three hours before returning a not-guilty verdict. Prosecutor David Sturgill said his office still believed the shooting was unjustified but accepted the jury's decision.