A jury acquitted a Logansport man accused of eight counts of child molestation.

After two and half hours of deliberation in Cass Circuit Court Thursday, jurors found 37-year-old Genaro “Gerry” Luna not guilty of five counts of class A felony child molestation and three counts of class C felony child molestation.

As Judge Leo Burns read the verdict just before 3 p.m., people in support of both the alleged victim and the defendant began crying. Luna buried his face in his hands.

In an interview following his release from the Cass County Jail, Luna expressed his reaction to the verdicts.

“I’m grateful right now. I get to see my boys’ (baseball) game, the first game I get to see this season,” Luna said. “I’m very grateful I have a great lawyer, and for the jurors that they saw that I didn’t do anything that they accused me of.”

Police arrested Luna in June 2008 after the Cass County prosecutor’s office filed charges that accused him of having sexual relations with a girl under the age of 14 over a six-year period beginning in 2001.

The stakes were high for Luna, who could have been sentenced to 274 years in the Indiana Department of Correction. Each class A felony carries a maximum penalty of 50 years while the lesser counts of child molestation have an eight-year maximum.

In closing arguments Thursday morning, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Lisa Swaim asked the jury to hold Luna accountable for what he did and find him guilty on all counts, but the state’s case rested almost entirely on the testimony of the alleged victim. In an interview after the trial, Swaim talked about why that is problematic.

“Well, obviously this was not the verdict we hoped for, but we brought the evidence to the jury and they had to make a decision,” she said. “It is difficult when you only have one eyewitness to a crime, especially in molest cases.”

Swaim said prosecutors rarely obtain physical evidence in child sex abuse cases. Throughout the three-day trial this week, the state did not have any to present to jurors.

Swaim credited the alleged victim.

“The witness testified. She was very brave. She withstood rigorous cross examination but in the end, the jury chose to find the defendant not guilty, and we have to live with that,” Swaim said.

Defense attorney Jay Hirschauer seized upon the state’s lack of evidence. He discredited the alleged victim and repeatedly referred to testimony from the doctor who examined the alleged victim and found no sign of sexual abuse.

Hirschauer said the jury made the right decision.

“I’m extremely pleased that the jury followed the law and instructions of the court and paid attention to my final argument where I told them about the rights of all Americans — the right to a jury trial, the right for the state to prove somebody beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury determined there wasn’t enough evidence in this case,” the defense attorney said.

Hirschauer also talked about the challenge of trying a child molest case.

“I was concerned because the nature of the accusations are so horrific that it makes it hard for people to be unemotional and deal with this issue in a rational, unemotional basis. The jury was obviously able to do that, and I’m very thankful for that,” Hirschauer said.

For three days, jurors heard testimony from a detective, a doctor, family members of the victim and a Logansport police officer, who testified on Luna’s behalf. They were also subjected to graphic details of alleged sexual encounters.

Luna, who did not testify during the trial, had bonded out on a $25,000 surety bond last year. He was put back in jail after his arrest in March for operating while intoxicated. That case is still pending.

Luna set out the priorities in his life.

“Get a job, get back on my feet again and hopefully be the father I want to be for my kids, be there for them at all times,” he said.

• Kevin Lilly is news editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5117 or kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com