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The death of former Calgary woman Vida Smith was the result of an inadvertent act by her ex-gambling partner while he restrained her when she tried to steal $10,000 from him, a jury ruled Friday.

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In acquitting Chris Lee, 63, of second-degree murder, jurors accepted his testimony he had grabbed her in a chokehold in a northeast Calgary parking lot as she attempted to flee with his cash.

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Lee had admitted a charge of manslaughter at the start of his trial, but Crown lawyer Shane Parker indicated he would be proceeding with the murder prosecution.

Lee will now face sentencing on the lesser charge for causing Smith’s July 21, 2020, death.

Jurors accepted submissions by defence lawyer Cory Wilson that the Crown had failed to prove the accused caused Smith’s death through an intentional act that constituted murder.

Lee testified he met Smith, 69, outside a northeast Calgary coffee shop for the purpose of purchasing a passport in her ex-husband Michael Allan Smith’s name.

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The blackjack card counter, who was barred from playing the game in Calgary casinos as a result, figured the identification could assist him in cashing in big paydays at gambling halls without staff learning his true identity.

But he said Smith took the $10,000 he had brought to their meeting in the Nissan Rogue he was driving after they met for coffee and handed him a birth certificate in her ex-husband’s name.

That document, he said, would be worthless because it wasn’t a piece of photo identification.

Parker had argued the evidence established the Crown’s theory Lee restrained Smith when she entered his vehicle, before taking her to a remote location and fatally shooting her.

Parker pointed to two key pieces of evidence which he said weren’t credibly explained by Lee: a pair of handcuffs with Smith’s DNA on them and a homemade silencer Lee was seen tossing into a garbage bin shortly before his July 30, 2020, arrest.

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Lee said he had put the cuffs on Smith’s lifeless body after transferring her to a second vehicle at the northwest Calgary home of his girlfriend, saying he did so because he hoped she was still alive.

He said the firearm suppresser was simply thrown out while he was discarding crucial pieces of evidence linking him to Smith’s disappearance, including a fob and key for her Nissan Altima.

The homemade device had gunshot residue on it, but Lee said he had test-fired it months earlier in his girlfriend’s basement by firing a round into her cement floor.

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