A Suffolk Superior Court jury today acquitted a Jamaica Plain man who had been charged with gunning down his friend’s ex-girlfriend as she lit a candle to her own brother, who was shot to death at the same location four years earlier.

LARON LEWIS RICHARDSON (D.O.B. 6/24/88) was acquitted of murdering 20-year-old Analicia Perry on the night of July 22, 2006. Prosecutors alleged that he had fired the fatal round from a car driven by Perry’s ex-boyfriend, STEVEN SAYLES (D.O.B 4/5/87), who is scheduled for trial as an accessory to Perry’s murder later this year.

During eight days of testimony, prosecutors introduced evidence that Richardson had made incriminating statements during a three-way phone call with Sayles and the Perry family the day after the murder. Richardson then fled the state and was apprehended after an armed standoff in Portland, Maine, a month later.

Perry’s brother, Robert Perry, was shot to death in the same Albert Street location four years previously, and Perry herself was lighting a candle in his memory when she was slain. No one was ever formally charged with Robert Perry’s homicide.

Richardson was represented at trial by attorney Jonathan Shapiro.