New Jersey man acquitted in retrial in 2014 beating death of college student from Tennessee

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man has been acquitted in a retrial in the beating death of a college student from Tennessee a decade ago. Jurors in Middlesex County deliberated for five hours before acquitting Timothy Puskas of all charges Wednesday in the 2014 death of 22-year-old former Rutgers student William McCaw. McCaw had been walking home from a party before his body was found in deep snow in a New Brunswick backyard. Puskas was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to 40 years, but a state appeals court overturned the conviction in 2021, citing a lack of physical evidence, among other things.