CLINTON COUNTY — After three days of testimony, a Clinton County jury found a 26-year-old Alton man not guilty on both counts stemming from the 2014 death of a developmentally disabled resident in his care while he was employed at the Warren G. Murray Center in Centralia.

The jury in the case against Christopher Duguay reached their not guilty verdicts just before 5 p.m. Thursday, and Duguay’s $2,500 bond was ordered returned to the person who posted it last January 11.

Duguay was facing charges of Class 4 felony for criminal neglect of a resident at a state facility and Class 3 felony criminal neglect resulting in the death of Todd Clementz, a resident of the Murray Center where Duguay worked at the time as a Mental Health Technician.

A Marion County Coroner’s inquest in November 2014 found Clementz’s cause of death to be homicide and the result of a “punishment” shower that resulted in him choking on water that was sprayed into his face as well as on regurgitated food.

However, after hearing testimony from medical experts and Duguay’s former co-workers at the Murray Center, the jury found he was not guilty of the charges against him and the charges were dismissed.

Jurors were ultimately directed to ignore the testimony of one former co-worker, Brandon Englekins, who was to testify for the prosecution. But after refusing to provide the same statements he had made previously and then exercising his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Englekins refused to testify in the case.