It took a jury 3 1/2 hours Thursday to find a Portage man not guilty of three rape-related felony charges.

Timmy A. Marshall, 39, of the 6200 block of Joyce Avenue, potentially faced up to 20 years in prison on each of the two class B felony charges, rape and criminal deviate conduct, and up to eight years on class C felony incest accusations that he committed the crimes in December 2013.

Since the trial started, Porter County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Matthew Frost argued that Marshall raped a 16-year-old female to punish her when she was suspended from school.

Prosecutors argued that Marshall left a saliva enzyme on her that a DNA test identified as belonging to a male relative.

Two juvenile relatives had come to live with Marshall following the June 2013 death of their mother.

Defense attorney Clay Patton argued that the girl's timeline made no sense. Patton said the girl told police she showered, was raped, showered again, gave her dad her cellphone, rode 20 minutes to Miller in Gary and then back, wrote a letter to Marshall petitioning for her phone back, then texted her friends to call police between 2:30 p.m. and 3:40 p.m.

Patton said she leveled the allegations to get away from Marshall and his strict rules, having already run away on a Greyhound bus back to Tennessee in August and having multiple discipline problems with him and at school before and after her accusations.

Patton also argued that the DNA got on her in the shared shower.

James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.