MINNEAPOLIS — A jury has acquitted a St. Paul man in the 1999 killing of a man outside a north Minneapolis convenience store.

Thirty-three-year-old Earl Vang left Hennepin County court a free man Tuesday after nine months in jail.

Last year, Vang and another St. Paul man, Tou Lu Yang, were indicted in the shooting death of 19-year-old Miguel McElroy on July 9, 1999, after a drug deal gone bad.

Vang was not charged then, but a jury convicted Yang in McElroy’s death in 1999. Prosecutors reopened the case after a judge ordered a new trial for Yang.

Jurors acquitted Vang on charges of first- and second-degree murder. Defense attorney Earl Gray had challenged the reliability of witness identifications of Vang in police photo line-ups.