(AP) – A former McPherson College football player has been acquitted in last fall’s death of a player from a rival school.

A jury deliberated less than two hours Tuesday before finding 20-year-old Alton Franklin not guilty of second-degree murder. Franklin was quickly freed from the McPherson County jail, where he’d been held since September.

Franklin was accused of beating 26-year-old Tabor College defensive lineman Brandon Brown, who was found unconscious outside a party in McPherson last Sept. 16. Brown died six days later from blunt-force head trauma, with alcohol poisoning as a contributing factor.

Two witnesses testified they saw Franklin hit Brown. But the defense said there was no evidence that Franklin had struck anyone.

Franklin’s co-defendant, former McPherson player DeQuinte Flournoy, pleaded no contest earlier to aggravated battery.