RALEIGH - RALEIGH -- A Zebulon man walked out of the Wake County Courthouse Thursday evening a free man after a jury decided he wasn’t responsible for the shooting and killing his daughter’s boyfriend.

Warren Clifford, 45, was cleared of criminal charges in the Nov. 10 fatal shooting of Antony “A.J.” Devon Judd Jr., the 19-year-old boyfriend and father to Clifford’s then-infant grandson, after a Wake jury returned a not-guilty verdict.

Clifford never denied shooting Judd in a confrontation sparked by Clifford’s anger over Judd not helping fix a car. But Clifford’s motivations before the shooting were at the heart of the trial. When he heard the juror’s decision, he wiped tears from his face and later hugged his wife.

Notably absent from the courtroom was Camille Clifford, the 22-year-old daughter who testified for Wake prosecutors but is living with her parents in the Zebulon-area home where her boyfriend was shot to death. She had been in the courtroom earlier in the day with her parents but left upset when jurors indicated mid-day that they may be deadlocked between a not guilty verdict and involuntary manslaughter, which could have carried a probationary sentence for Clifford.

Judd’s aunt and cousin both rushed out of the courtroom after hearing the jury’s not-guilty verdict, crying and overcome with emotion. Adrian Michelle Champion, Judd’s aunt who raised him for much of his childhood, sat on the courtroom steps after the verdict, holding her daughter LaGuardia Champion’s head in her lap as the younger woman cried and wailed, “He killed him, he killed him.”

“It was unjust,” Michelle Champion said about the jury’s decision. “They didn’t care.”

Clifford and Judd tangled on the evening of Nov. 10 when Judd arrived at the Zebulon-area home to pick up a set of keys that Camille Clifford had. Warren Clifford had spent the day working on 1981 Subaru the couple used and had commented to his daughter that Judd should have been there helping.

Camllle Clifford tried to prevent her boyfriend from coming by, knowing that her father was upset, but Judd walked near her father as he was bent down working on the car the couple used, according to court testimony.

Warren Clifford told Judd that he should have been helping him and Judd responded in a way that Clifford took to be disrespectful, according to court testimony. The two traded words when Clifford went inside his house and retrieved a gun from his bedroom dresser.

He came out and he and Judd continued their argument, with Judd demanding that the armed Clifford give him his 2-month-old son. Some witnesses who testified for Clifford said Judd was enraged and cussing. Champion, who witnessed the shooting, denied that her nephew swore.

Clifford then shot Judd at a close range, striking him in the chest.

Clifford feared that Judd, who was 5-foot-10 and weighted 365 pounds, was going to harm him, defense attorney Butch Williams said in his closing remarks and indicated that Judd may have lunged at the elder man.

Wake prosecutors had argued that Clifford overreacted and did not have the right to shoot Judd.

Jurors were given the option of convicting Clifford of second-degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, which they all rejected in favor of their not guilty verdict.

Champion said her nephew, despite his size, was gentle, respectful and non-violent. Since his death, she’s seen his son A.J., now 11-months-old, but fears that she won’t be able to see him anymore because of the trial’s outcome.

“His death was so unnecessary,” Champion said.

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