SANFORD, FLA.—A judge has cut short the weeklong murder trial of a blind man, granting his “stand your ground” motion and ruling that he acted in self-defence.

John Wayne Rogers, 40, killed his friend, James DeWitt, 34, in Rogers’ Geneva, Fla., home March 27, 2012, after a long drinking session.

Rogers is a blind man who was defending himself from an attack in his home, said public defenders Tim Caudill and Stuart Bryson.

Rogers shot DeWitt once in the chest with a .308-calibre Remington assault rifle from a distance of about half a metre, defence lawyers said.

DeWitt and his girlfriend had gone to Rogers’ house to drink beer and had spent the night. The next day the group had made a 10 a.m. trip to the store to buy more beer, according to Rogers’ arrest report.

The defendant testified that he had asked DeWitt to leave but that the victim had attacked him, so he went into another room and retrieved his rifle. After Rogers pointed it in DeWitt’s general direction, he said DeWitt charged him.

“He felt like he had no choice but to shoot him, and he did,” said Caudill.

DeWitt’s girlfriend told Seminole County deputies that the two men had been “play fighting,” something they sometimes did, when Rogers walked into another room, emerged with the rifle and without provocation, shot DeWitt.

After listening to Rogers’ testimony on Thursday, Circuit Judge John Galluzzo granted his “stand your ground” motion Friday morning, meaning he declared the disabled man immune from prosecution.

Rogers had been charged with first-degree murder and has been in the Seminole County Jail since the shooting.

He is legally blind, having been injured in a work-related accident while testing a fire-suppression system in 2001.

Before that, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Jurors were selected Monday and returned Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to hear evidence and argument in the case. They were expected to begin deliberations Friday had the judge not made his ruling.