http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16770525.htm

A federal jury has acquitted a man of charges stemming from a bizarre murder plot involving a booby-trapped toy dog, which exploded and killed a college student in South San Jose six years ago.

After three days of deliberations, the jury in U.S. District Court concluded that David Lin, 39, was not guilty of conspiring to mail an explosive device with intent to injure or kill. His defense attorney argued that he mailed a package as a favor for a friend but did not know it contained a bomb.

He still faces prosecution in two unrelated cases involving alleged credit card fraud. Lin, who has been in jail for more than five years in the bombing case, is scheduled to be released tonight on a $5,000 bond.

Patrick Hsu, an 18-year-old college student, was killed by the explosion at his parents' home in early 2001. Authorities say Lin had mailed the toy on behalf of another man, Anthony Chang, who was briefly married to Hsu's sister.

Chang is also charged in the case but he is a fugitive, currently believed to be living in Venezuela. Testimony showed that Chang assembled the bomb in Nevada and then asked Lin to mail it to the Hsu home from a post office in Milpitas. Authorities say Chang was angry at his former wife and wanted revenge against her family.

Earlier this week, defense attorney Daniel Blank argued in court that Lin had mailed the toy for Chang as a favor, without knowing that it was booby-trapped.

But prosecutor Jane Shoemaker told jurors that Lin had to know what Chang had planned. A prosecution witness testified that Chang had recounted conversations in which Chang told Lin the package contained a bomb.

When the package arrived at the victim's home, Hsu's father opened it and then put it aside. A few weeks later, Patrick Hsu, a freshman at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was home for the weekend when he picked up the toy and inserted batteries -- triggering an explosion that shattered windows and killed him instantly.