WORCESTER —  Patrick I. Powell, one of two men charged with murder in a 2006 fatal stabbing in Milford, was acquitted today by a Worcester Superior Court jury.

Mr. Powell, 19, was charged in the Jan. 6, 2006, stabbing death of 21-year-old Daniel Columbo during a fight near Mr. Columbo’s home at 26 Carroll St., Milford. While prosecutors contended the killing was planned, Mr. Powell maintained he acted in defense of himself and a co-defendant, Vinnie Ruscitti, when he stabbed Mr. Columbo once in the chest.

Mr. Powell also testified that he was trying to punch Mr. Columbo and did not realize he had the knife in his hand when the stabbing occurred. He and Mr. Ruscitti, who is charged as a joint venturer and is awaiting trial, were both 16 at the time of the killing.

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about 23 hours over five days before returning the not-guilty verdict shortly before 10:30 a.m.

The jury’s verdict options in the case were not guilty of any crime or guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter.

Mr. Columbo’s mother, JoAnn Columbo, was escorted to the district attorney’s office in tears after the verdict was announced.

“I’m very happy. I’m overjoyed. He’s coming home,” said Mr. Powell’s aunt, Maria Pruitt.

The trial began May 27.

Mr. Powell

WORCESTER —  The prosecutor and defense lawyer in the Patrick I. Powell murder trial offered the jury conflicting takes on the evidence in their closing arguments yesterday.

Mr. Powell’s lawyer, John G. Swomley, asked the jurors to find that his client, 16 at the time, was acting in defense of himself and a friend when he stabbed Daniel Columbo in the chest during a Jan. 6, 2006, fight a short distance from the 21-year-old Mr. Columbo’s home at 26 Carroll St. in Milford.

WORCESTER — Patrick Powell left Worcester Superior Court a free man yesterday after spending more than three years in jail leading up to his trial in the stabbing death of Daniel Columbo.

After a jury acquitted Powell, 19, he embraced his aunt and girlfriend in a tearful reunion inside courtroom 10.

"I'm glad to be back with my family," said Powell, who had been in the Worcester County House of Correction while awaiting trial. "I'm relieved."

Powell's aunt, Maria Pruitt, and girlfriend, Cheyenne Letts, 18, hugged and wept after a male foreman announced "not guilty."

"I'm very happy," said Pruitt, who raised Powell and called herself his mother. "I'm overjoyed he's coming home."

Powell was accused of stabbing Columbo during a Milford street fight on Jan. 6, 2006.

Swomley & Associates attorney, Eric Tennen, advising Patrick Powell.

WORCESTER — A Worcester Superior Court jury today found Milford teen Patrick Powell not guilty in the stabbing death of Daniel Columbo.

After five days of deliberation, the jury of eight men and four women returned its verdict this morning. Powell's family cried and embraced while Columbo's family was escorted from the court room shortly after the verdict.