Vols player found not guilty in toy gun assault case

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -A jury on Friday found Tennessee cornerback Marsalous Johnson not guilty of assault, after an off-duty sheriff's deputy said Johnson waved a gun at him while driving on the interstate.

When the deputy alerted on-duty officers and they pulled over Johnson's vehicle, they found a toy Uzi submachine gun under the passenger seat.

Johnson's case was postponed several times since the incident last July and finally went to trial in Putnam County Circuit Court. A jury found Johnson not guilty of simple assault, court clerk Marcia Borys said.

Johnson was originally charged with aggravated assault, but the charge was lowered to a misdemeanor in November and sent to a grand jury.

"I am really happy for Marsalous and his family. They have been through a lot of heartache and emotion through all of this," coach Phillip Fulmer said in a statement.

Johnson, a rising sophomore, was suspended for the first four games of last season as punishment for the arrest. He is projected to start at cornerback this season.