WARRENTON, Mo. (AP) — An eastern Missouri woman who said she killed her husband in self-defense has been acquitted of first-degree murder.

31-year-old Ashley Hunter, of Foristell, called Monday’s verdict “heaven sent.” It allowed her to leave the jail where she’d been held since her 2015 arrest.

She testified that her husband, 30-year-old Nicholas Hunter, assaulted her and insisted she turn over her electronic passwords.

Defense lawyer Scott Rosenblum argued that Nicholas Hunter had unpredictable moods, partially due to drinking and steroid use. Rosenblum said Nicholas Hunter choked his wife so hard that he lifted her off the ground on the night he was killed.

But the prosecution said Ashley Hunter had no signs of injury, although she told a dispatcher that her husband “just kept hitting her.”

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