RIVERDALE — A four-member jury acquitted a 21-year-old day care worker of reckless child abuse, nearly a year after a 5-year-old boy told his mother he had been choked at Bravo Arts Academy.

The Riverdale Justice Court jury deliberated about an hour before returning its verdict early Friday evening in favor of Alexander Brent Jones, of Layton. He was charged with the misdemeanor for a Nov. 3, 2016, incident at the Riverdale day care.

“He choked me,” the boy, now 6, testified.

RELATED: Judge refuses to suppress video, other evidence in Bravo day care abuse case

But defense attorneys Kristopher Greenwood and Lauren Forsyth chiseled away at the evidence, which included surveillance video, photos of red marks on the boy’s neck, an apology note written to the child’s mother and a disciplinary write-up Jones received just after the incident saying one more such action would lead to his firing. They said it failed to meet the standard of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“I’m happy beyond belief,” Jones said.

The man slumped in relief when Judge Reuben Renstrom read the not-guilty verdict. He then received hugs from relatives and Angy Ford, the Bravo owner, who had vowed Jones would not be convicted.

Greenwood grilled the boy’s mother, asking her why she did not immediately pull her son out of Bravo after the incident.

“Have you ever tried to find child care in Utah?” she shot back.

Greenwood told jurors eight hours elapsed between the time of the incident and when the boy’s parents took photos of red marks on the child’s neck.

The parents soon reported the alleged child abuse to Utah Child Protective Services, which notified the Riverdale Police Department.

Detective Lynn Wright testified the video showed Jones pull the boy from beneath a table, slam him to the ground and then put his hand near or on the boy’s neck.

But under Greenwood’s questioning, Wright said that given the choppy quality of the video, “I can’t say definitively that his hand was on his neck.”

The detective said the red marks shown on the photos were consistent with a strangulation injury. He said strangling injuries sometimes are not fully visible even though damage may have occurred inside the body.

Greenwood pointed out the parents did not seek medical care for the boy.

City prosecutor Letitia Toombs argued that Jones “body slamming” the boy to the floor was far outside allowable discipline in a day care. She also said the video showed Jones ignored a fight between two other students in the room, a conflict one child reeled away from, bleeding.

Jones did not like the boy, Toombs said, “and you can see it.”

Greenwood chronicled a series of write-ups the 5-year-old received at the day care for allegedly hitting, kicking, slapping and biting day care workers and other children.

Toombs said the boy was hiding under a table, frightened of Jones, when the man yanked him out and threw him to the floor.

“I’m speechless,” the boy’s tearful mother said of the verdict outside the tiny courtroom.

You can reach reporter Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net or 801 625-4224. Follow him on Twitter at @mshenefelt and like him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SEmarkshenefelt.