BATON ROUGE — A Baton Rouge man accused of killing a 69-year-old was found not guilty Monday after four days of trial and only one eyewitness' testimony, The Advocate reports.

Tony Lanus, 22, was acquitted in the murder of Eishmel Spears Jr. WBRZ previously reported that Spears was killed on Merganzer Avenue in June 2023.

Prosecutors cited Baton Rouge Police reports that said Lanus shot the man at random because he “wanted to try out his gun and kill someone."

Delmonte “Fatman” Aites, Lanus' cousin, was the only eyewitness to testify. Aites said he was driving with his cousin in the passenger seat when Lanus said, “I feel like killing somebody." The Advocate also reported that a forensic DNA analyst for the Louisiana State Police testified there a “very strong” match to Lanus’ DNA on the gun.

Assistant District Attorney Fredrick Scott said Lanus displayed a specific intent to kill — a legal requirement for second-degree murder — when he rolled down his window and took aim at Spears’ truck knowing it was an occupied vehicle.

Police later found a gun matching ammunition found at the scene in Lanus' home, The Advocate reported.

Lanus’ trial lawyer, however, called Aites a liar and said that there was no scientific evidence to support his testimony and that Lanus’ DNA was nowhere in his car, saying the DNA match didn’t necessarily prove the defendant ever shot or held the pistol.

Lanus' lawyer also claimed text messages sent by Aites were fabricated by the man and also alleged that he was the one who fired at Spears, The Advocate added.

Ultimately, Lanus was found not guilty and was freed after spending more than 16 months in jail awaiting trial, his attorney said.

"The jury is our only protection from false accusations and I am very grateful and appreciative of this jury and extremely happy for Tony and his family," Bruce Unangst, Lanus' lawyer, said.

District Attorney Hillar Moore sent the following statement after the trial:

"The state presented both circumstantial and direct evidence. The strength of the cases case relied heavily on the only eyewitness who testified that this defendant shot and killed the victim. Unfortunately for our victim and his family, the jury obviously found that the state did not meet its burden as proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We respect their decision."

LSU legal expert Ken Levy says this case was odd.

"I wonder why the prosecution didn't bring a case against both of them, a conspiracy case, an aiding and abetting case. One of them clearly shot the victim here," Levy said.

He said the defense only has to prove reasonable doubt.

"He may have raised reasonable doubt that Mr. Aites was the shooter, not Mr. Lanus, it looks like the jury bought that," Levy said. 

He added that if there were two people in the car, both should have been charged, saying that if there is "ambiguity about who shot the gun, then just charge both, I don't understand why the DA didn't do that."

"When you only have one eyewitness, the case generally depends on that one eye witness. In this particular case, the jury didn't find that one eye witness credible," Levy said.