San Diego

A jury Wednesday acquitted a man charged with strangling a Pacific Beach man in an alleged murder-for-hire plot. Ziyad Nor Muhammad, 34, was found innocent of any involvement in the May 19, 1984, slaying of John Osborne, 62. Muhammad, of San Diego, who is also known as Earl Anderson, went on trial separately from two other defendants, Osborne’s wife, Dorothy Osborne, 65, and Clyde Shelton, 40. Shelton testified against Muhammad as part of an agreement with the prosecution that he would only receive two years in prison after pleading guilty to assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily injuries. Dorothy Osborne, who is confined to a wheelchair, had criminal proceedings suspended last month after her attorney argued that she wasn’t mentally competent to stand trial. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Phillips told the jury Tuesday that Muhammad met with Dorothy Osborne and Shelton to plan the slaying, in which the men would receive several thousand of dollars. Muhammad told the jury he was asleep at home the night the slaying was committed.