On Jan. 14, 2014, an incident between next door neighbors ended with one of them shooting the other dead. A Morgan County jury has just acquitted the shooter on a "stand your ground" defense.

Steven Keith Childers (Morgan County Jail)

The incident was between Steven Keith Childers and Jeremy Trent Lorance. Priceville police were responding to their second call there within several hours. That second response revealed Lorance was dead and Childers was the shooter.

Childers' attorney, James Smith, explained his client's account of what happened that night and why the jury found he was in the right.

Smith said Childers and his wife were leaving their home that evening when they heard a loud commotion coming from Lorance's home next door. He said Lorance had a reputation for becoming drunk and violent to his family, so the couple went over to check on them. He said their suspicions were confirmed so they called 911 as they left, but Lorance ran off before Priceville police and Morgan County deputies arrived.

Smith said authorities advised Childers it would probably be safer for them to spend the night elsewhere. He said after the police left, Childers returned to his home to get some things and spend the night elsewhere only Lorance was on Childers' front porch waiting for him. Smith said he was drunk and angry at his neighbor for calling police on him. Lorance was not armed, according to reports.

This was the point where it turned violent. Smith said Childers got out his Savage .22 semiautomatic rifle to scare Lorance off his property while his wife called 911 again. The defense goes that Lorance lunged at his neighbor and there was a physical confrontation, during which Childers fatally shot Lorance twice in the head.

Childers was originally charged with murder. A grand jury indicted him on the lesser charge of manslaughter in September. He was free on a $20,000 bond when he went to trial this week.

The defense was that Childers had a right to defend himself under Alabama's "stand your ground" law. After hearing testimony on Tuesday through Thursday, the jury returned a not guilty verdict Friday morning.

"He didn't have to retreat and had the right to defend himself," Smith said.

The defense attorney said police testified that Lorance did have a reputation for violence and that Childers was advised his home could be dangerous that night because of this. He said the victim's blood alcohol level proved to be higher than the legal driving limit that night, and that his client was presented with a dangerous situation at his own home.

Experts concluded the rifle was at least 30 inches away from Lorance's head when he pulled the trigger because there was no gunpowder residue on either wound, Smith said. The shots were caught on the 911 recording, which was played for the jury this week.

AL.com was not able to reach the Morgan County District Attorney's Office to learn about the prosecution's side Friday afternoon.

Alabama law stipulates that a person can defend his or herself with deadly force without duty to retreat. Conditions to this law state the person must not be the original aggressor and not engaging in an illegal activity. More about this law can be found here and here. AL.com published a more detailed look at "stand your ground" here.