The jury foreman stood and read the verdicts aloud, but murder defendant Ross Deadwyler could not hear him. Instead, Deadwyler stared at the hands of interpreter Dot Shaw.

At the moment of truth, Shaw brushed her right thumb out from her chin and then pressed her curled fingers to her heart. She repeated the gesture a few seconds later on the second and final charge.

RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/AJC (ENLARGE)
Two interpreters kept Ross Deadwyler informed of everything in his weeklong trial and helped him testify.
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Deadwyler at first stared in apparent disbelief, but a slight smile from Shaw may have brought home the message. He turned toward defense lawyer Keith Adams and wept in gratitude.

The foreman had twice announced "not guilty." The verdicts Friday ended a weeklong trial in which Deadwyler, a deaf Decatur man, claimed he was defending himself when he stabbed to death his cocaine supplier, Alonzo Smith, last Nov. 4.

Several jurors who spoke to defense lawyers after their verdict said Deadwyler's own testimony was crucial in their decision. They did not mention the 37-year-old defendant's deafness as a factor in the verdict. But his disability in some ways seemed to make him more expressive.

Deadwyler spoke to the jury in the high-pitched voice of a person modulating speech he cannot hear. He also communicated with his hands, signing to an interpreter standing next to him, who repeated his words aloud clearly.

As the two voices mingled, Deadwyler also at times swung his arms broadly to show how he fought with — and stabbed — Smith. He had done the same thing in a videotaped interview with Decatur police that was played for the jury, swinging wildly to demonstrate the frantic nature of the fight and saying, "I am not a killer."

Throughout the trial, Shaw and fellow interpreter Donnajo Benefield alternated standing in front of Deadwyler to interpret every word spoken in the courtroom. As one interpreted, the other watched to ensure that nothing was missed.

Interpretation became an issue at one point during the testimony of Deadwyler's former roommate, who also is deaf. The defense said the interpreter provided by prosecutors for that witness was making mistakes, and ultimately the defense interpreters took over the job.

Deadwyler testified that he had often let Smith use his car in exchange for cocaine but had refused on the night of Nov. 4, even after he took cocaine from Smith. He said he locked Smith out of the duplex on Missionary Drive in Decatur and only defended himself when Smith broke in.

In a lengthy cross-examination, DeKalb Assistant District Attorney Tom Clegg pressed Deadwyler to explain how he managed to inflict more than 30 wounds on Smith, some in his back, while suffering just two cuts himself.

Deadwyler said both he and Smith were under the influence of drugs and that he brandished a knife to warn Smith to get away from his back door. Instead, he claimed, Smith broke through the door, yelling too quickly for Deadwyler to read his lips.

The defendant said Smith kicked him in the chest as he tried to call 911.

Deadwyler said Smith wrested away the knife as the two men fought, so he went to the kitchen to get another. Clegg noted that by Deadwyler's own account Smith was struggling to stand at that point, yet Deadwyler returned to fight him.

"My mind wasn't right," Deadwyler replied. "I was terrified. I was defending myself."

Deadwyler, jailed since his arrest the night of the killing, told his lawyer as he awaited his release Friday that he planned to contact his union representative at the post office, where he worked.

"There's a good chance that he will be able to go back to his job," Adams said.