Marcus Lillard, boyfriend of Georgia professor Marianne Shockley, acquitted in her death 3 years after sheriff called it "one of the strangest cases" ever

The boyfriend of a University of Georgia professor has been acquitted in her May 2019 death at a friend's house in central Georgia. After Marianne Shockley was found dead outside a hot tub and the homeowner apparently took his own life, the county sheriff called it "one of the strangest cases that we've ever worked."

A jury heard about four days of testimony and deliberated for about 35 minutes on April 8 before finding Marcus Lillard not guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct in the death of Shockley, the Telegraph newspaper reported. However, the judge did revoke Lillard's probation on a drug charge.

Shockley, who was 43 when she died, and Lillard, 44, had met decades earlier while studying at Georgia College in Milledgeville and reconnected about a year before her death.