By Alabama Public Radio
Lee County, AL – A jury has decided that alcohol, not a shoe fight, killed a Lee County man in 2004. Geraldine Pitts was on trial for criminally negligent homicide in the death of her boyfriend, James Postell. She says she found him dead in their hallway about 24 hours after they had a fight when she had hit him with her shoe. Pitts admitted to hitting the 54-year-old. But she also said his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit. She said that was what killed him and not the shoe scuffle. During the one-day trial, defense lawyers called two relatives of Pitts who saw Postell after the shoe fight. They said he didn't complain of feeling ill. A retired neurosurgeon also testified that he didn't think being hit on the head by a shoe had anything to do with Postell's death. The jury deliberated just 30 minutes before acquitting Pitts.