A man facing allegations of stalking Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow was found not guilty by a jury Wednesday.
The jury, comprising of six men and six women, acquitted 66-year-old Dante Soiu, of Columbus, who prosecutors accused of sending Paltrow disturbing letters and unwanted gifts over the past few years, according to the Associated Press.
The "Iron Man" actress testified last week that Soiu sent her a total of about 70 letters, as well as several packages containing pornography and sex toys since 1999, as HNGN previously reported.
Paltrow described the letters as "religious to pornographic to threatening." In one of the excerpts that Paltrow read aloud during her testimony, Soiu wrote that he wanted to marry the actress and threatened to use a scalpel "to cut out sin" in her body in another letter.
Soiu also took the stand and told the jury that he continued his correspondence to the actress as an attempt to seek forgiveness. "I was trying to show I had changed and I had become a different person. I wanted to show a new face towards her," Soiu said, according to Entertainment Tonight. "I was very lonely...I wanted to have a pen pal."
Lynda Westlund, Soiu's attorney, argued that words such as "die" used by Soiu in his letters to Paltrow were not threatening in nature and were nothing more than an attempt by a Christian man to minister the starlet.
This isn't the first time Soiu has been accused of stalking Paltrow. In 2000, he was charged with sending Paltrow lewd messages and sex toys. He was found not guilty on grounds of insanity, and the judge sent him to a mental health facility for several years.
