BAY CITY, MI -- A jury deliberated for nearly three hours before declaring a Bay City woman not guilty of excessively spanking her 6-year-old stepdaughter.

The five-man, seven-woman jury found Mara A. Hess-Schoonveld, 25, not guilty of third-degree child abuse. The charge is a four-year felony. Hess-Schoonveld faced no other charges.

The jury delivered its verdict about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 30. Jurors started deliberating about 2:30 p.m.

On hearing the verdict, Hess-Schoonveld instantly began crying. After the individual jurors were polled by Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill, defense attorney David Helm and assorted family members hugged and congratulated Hess-Schoonveld.

In the hall outside the courtroom minutes later, one departing juror shouted, "Congratulations" to Hess-Schoonveld.

"We think the jury made the right decision in this particular case," Helm said. "It's obvious that there's an inter-family dispute and unfortunately my client, Mara, has been subject to that dispute, which resulted in these allegations. We just think the jury did the right thing."

Hess-Schoonveld declined to comment, apart from saying she was just going to go home.

The trial began Tuesday. In it, Bay County Assistant Prosecutor Bernard Coppolino argued Hess-Schoonveld repeatedly spanked her stepdaughter on April 1, 2015, causing bruising to her buttocks, thighs, and lower back. The injuries were discovered when the girl's mother, Gina Schoonveld, gave her a bath on April 3, she testified. The girl testified Tuesday that Hess-Schoonveld "spanked me 20 times."

The incident happened during a family dinner at Hess-Schoonveld's father's house. Others in attendance testified the girl was refusing to eat her dinner and Hess-Schoonveld repeatedly took her to other rooms, but that they did not think the child was in any danger or injured.

Helm argued his client spanked the girl for refusing to eat her dinner, but only as a last resort after talking to her, sending her to timeout and trying other forms of discipline.