A man was acquitted Tuesday of aggravated assault and simple assault in connection with a violent, marijuana-related burglary at a University Terrace apartment in April.

Prosecutors said Cory Seibert, 23, beat Montclair, N.J. native Lawrence Murphy with a golf club when the 20-year-old Murphy unlawfully entered the apartment Seibert was staying in and demanded drugs. The violence shown in the attack, police said, was enough to warrant an aggravated assault conviction.

The jury disagreed. Seibert was found not guilty on all charges.

"The jury was out 21 minutes," defense attorney Philip Masorti said. "After a 10-hour jury trial, the jury was out 21 minutes. It was ridiculous."

Masorti had several defenses for his client: Seibert was defending himself during the attack, the commonwealth could not identify Seibert as the assailant who inflicted Murphy's wounds and witnesses could not identify him, he said.

Seibert, of 1013 S. Allen St., was sleeping on the couch of friends Stephan Jarmak and Penn State student Corey Stranzl in their University Terrace apartment when Murphy, masked and with a duffel bag, entered looking for "the drugs," according to court documents. It was then, the prosecution contended, that Seibert beat Murphy, 20, both inside and outside the apartment with a golf club.

But the defense painted a different picture, a portrait of self-defense with which the jury eventually concurred.

"This crowbar-wielding madman busts in, and Cory [Seibert] retreats," Masorti said. Masorti said Seibert and Stranzl hit Murphy with golf clubs only after Murphy began hitting them with his crowbar.

State College Police officers said they found Murphy covered in blood, wearing nothing but shorts and carrying a black and red duffel bag smelling strongly of marijuana. Police searched the apartment and discovered bloody and broken golf clubs, a crowbar and blood spatter throughout, according to court documents.

Police said they also found 2.6 pounds of marijuana and almost $1,000 cash in Jarmak's blue Honda. Jarmak and Stranzl were both charged with drug possession with intent to deliver, according to court documents.

Murphy was taken to Mount Nittany Medical Center and then to Geisinger Medical Center for serious injuries, including "lacerations on his face and puncture wounds on his face and neck," according to the complaint. Witnesses told police they saw Murphy being hit with golf clubs and punched and that he was also "stabbed" with a broken golf club, according to the complaint.

But onlookers couldn't identify Seibert as one of the attackers, Masorti said. The commonwealth, he said, seemed unprepared.

"It was really aggravating," he said. "It reflected a complete lack of oversight by the district attorney's office."

Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira did not immediately return multiple phone calls seeking comment.