ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis jury late Thursday night acquitted a man accused of shooting a woman near Tower Grove Park and snatching her purse.

After about eight hours of deliberation, jurors returned not guilty verdicts against Christopher Shead, 33, on charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and armed criminal action. The three-day trial was in Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh's courtroom.

Shead's lawyer, Terence Niehoff, said two commenters on an STLtoday news story about Shead's arrest posted an alibi for Shead and tesitifed at trial that Shead was attending a birthday party at the time of the crime.

Shead had been accused of shooting and robbing a 31-year-old woman on Sept. 24, 2015, in the 4200 block of Arsenal Street across from Tower Grove Park. Charges said Shead approached her about 5:40 p.m., shot her in the leg, took her purse and drove off in a dark green coupe.