A former DHL courier charged with possessing cocaine hugged his girlfriend and her mother when a Supreme Court jury found him not guilty after less than two hours of deliberation yesterday.

Michael Euguene Parsons pleaded not guilty to handling $22,250 worth of the controlled drug cocaine in an increased penalty zone with the intent to supply on October 6, 2005.

Mr. Parsons was represented by defence lawyer Craig Attridge and Robert Welling was for the Crown. The Crown alleged Parsons dropped off a package containing cocaine at QuoVadis Ltd. addressed to someone who didn’t work there and came back the next day to pick it up.

The trial began on Monday with the crown producing seven witnesses including three QuoVadis employees, two DHL employees, a TeleBermuda International manager and the investigating officer.

Steven Davidson, vice president of QuoVadis told the court a package arrived for a Steven Paymei on October 5. The package was accepted even though no one of that name worked at the company.

Mr. Davidson said he opened the package and found a slim white binder containing Microsoft documents beginning on page 19. In one of the pockets, he found cocaine. He said he called the Police and they took the package.

He told the court the next day, Mr. Parsons came back to check for the account number on the package but was told it wasn’t there. He appeared nervous but wrote down the DHL number if they needed to contact him.

Kimya Talbot, the secretary for QuoVadis was the person who handed Mr. Parsons the package the next day. She said he appeared very normal and was looking at paperwork before he was arrested.

Walter Cook, the chief security officer for the company told the court he called Mr. Parsons on October 6 to tell him that the package was ready to be picked up. He said he was shaking and was very anxious when he arrived.

Zina DeRosa, Mr. Parsons’ former supervisor told the court he was a fast learner and a good employee. Ms DeRosa said she knew nothing about the situation until she couldn’t reach Mr. Parsons on his radio.

Karen Carlington, customer service manager at TeleBermuda International told the jury a call was placed from a Bermuda cell phone number to a landline in New Jersey, the same state the package came from, but couldn’t say if Mr. Parsons made the call.

Detective Windol Thorpe arrested Parsons on October 6 and said he was shocked to be arrested and said, “I’m just doing my job.”

He also interviewed him at the Hamilton Police Station the next day.

When Mr. Parsons took the stand, the told he jury he had no idea the package contained cocaine and was just doing his job. He said he was unsure if the package was to be paid for when it was delivered and that was when the problem arose.

He said when he got back to his job, the item was not logged in his scanner so he called QuoVadis to check about an account number.

He went to QuoVadis and was told the package was at another company but received a call later in the morning that it had arrived and he could come to collect it.

He went back to QuoVadis and sat in the lobby filling out paperwork. He said he picked up the package and went back to his paperwork then was arrested.

He said he was shocked and scared and didn’t know why he was being arrested.

He told the court he didn’t call the number in New Jersey until he received papers from his lawyer.

Yesterday, Mr. Parsons expressed his relief at the not guilty verdict saying: “I thank the Lord for pushing me through this. Also the support of my girl, she was there through thick and thin. And especially my lawyer, Craig Attridge, who was there for me the whole time.”

His girlfriend’s mother, Dorlene Lightbourne said, “I thank the Lord. Thank you Jesus.”

Another supporter, Richard Brangman said, “God looks out for his own.”