OZARK, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri woman said she's trying to rebuild her life after being found not guilty of a murder that had kept her locked up for seven years.Greene County Judge Michael …
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OZARK, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri woman said she's trying to rebuild her life after being found not guilty of a murder that had kept her locked up for seven years.Greene County Judge Michael Cordonnier ruled Tuesday that no physical evidence linked Paula Hall, of Sparta, to the death of Freda Heyn, 68, who disappeared in November 2003 from Oldfield.Hall had been jailed since she was arrested in 2006. She was convicted in 2009 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But an appeals court overturned the conviction in 2011. Cordonnier heard Hall's second trial last week without a jury."And now I am just trying to process being home and being out and being free," Hall told KYTV (http://bit.ly/1gtfdSv ) on Wednesday.She said her time in prison was hard but she used it to find faith and make changes her life."I am not going to sit here and say I am perfect, either. I didn't murder anybody ... but I wasn't an angel either," Hall said.Her attorney, Rita Sanders, said she was always sure of Hall's innocence."I told Paula if this comes back as a guilty verdict, I am done with law. Because there would be absolutely no justice," Sanders said. "And I almost left the practice of law the first time (Hall was convicted) because I was so shocked."The case against Hall was largely based on testimony from David Epperson, who was originally charged with murder in Heyn's death. He testified against Hall after pleading guilty to tampering with physical evidence. Cordonnier said in his ruling that Epperson was an unreliable witness and his testimony was the only thing that linked Hall to Heyn's death.Sanders said she plans to file a civil lawsuit against people who testified against Hall.Mo. woman freed from murder sentence adjusting