A Mecklenburg jury has found a York County man not guilty of murdering his pregnant fiancee.

Michael Mead was accused of shooting Lucy Johnson in the back of the head and burning down her Gaston County home in July of 2008. Prosecutors said Mead was upset with Johnson because she was pregnant and refused to have an abortion. Defense attorneys found that idea laughable.

The trial stretched nearly two months; the jury deliberated for nearly nine hours over two days. Mead, 42, would have faced life in prison or the death penalty if he was convicted of the first-degree murder charge.

Johnson, 31, who was an emergency room nurse at Kings Mountain Hospital, was shot twice in the head. She was nearly four months pregnant with Mead's child. Today would have been her 34th birthday.

Prosecutors have described Mead as a man who was unhappy about his fiancée's pregnancy. He killed her, they said, and then torched her house to cover up the crime.

The defense has argued that it was not Mead who shot Johnson, but her ex-boyfriend with whom she was allegedly in a custody battle over their infant son.

Defense attorneys said Spelock abused Johnson in the past, and that Johnson had accused Spelock of cross-dressing.

"When Miss Johnson passed, so did Mr. Spelock's problem, " Defense Attorney Jason White told jurors during closing arguments.

The defense asserted that Johnson had become fearful of Spelock in the months leading to her death, even telling friends that if something happened to her, Spelock did it.

But prosecutors called the argument "a red herring." Spelock has not been charged in connection with Johnson's killing.