Staff file photo by Dean Shalhoup Jason Trythall listens to testimony during last week's trial, which ended Friday with the jury finding him not guilty on all five charges he faced in connection with the alleged assault of a woman in Hudson.

NASHUA – It took a jury of seven men and seven women less than an hour Friday to find Hudson resident Jason Trythall not guilty on all five charges accusing him of assaulting a woman in his car in April.

The verdict followed roughly two and a half days of often conflicting testimony by several witnesses, including the alleged victim, who said she and Trythall had been friends for a number of years, but were not in a committed relationship.

Trythall, 34, of 7 Hill St., went into last week’s trial facing one felony count of second-degree assault and four misdemeanor charges – two counts of simple assault, and one count each of false imprisonment and obstructing the report of a crime.

The charges accused Trythall of strangling the woman, smashing her face into the dashboard of his car, striking her in the head, refusing to let her out of his car and either hiding her cell phone or throwing it from the vehicle, according to the charging documents.

Prosecutors based their case on allegations the woman and Trythall, after having a couple of drinks at a Londonderry bar, had gone to Trythall’s home and were engaging in sex when he allegedly fell asleep.

The woman, unhappy with the alleged turn of events, gathered her belongings and left Trythall’s home on foot, despite his attempts to get her to stay.

She headed for her home in another part of Hudson, but how far, and for how long, she walked was disputed in testimony.

Prosecutors allege that an angry Trythall got in his car and went looking for her, eventually locating her near an intersection in the northern part of town, roughly a mile from her destination.

Trythall told her he’d give her a ride the rest of the way, according to prosecutors, but the woman testified she “jerked the (steering) wheel” when it appeared he was going to drive past the road leading to her home.

That angered Trythall, according to prosecutors and the woman’s testimony. He allegedly shouted profanities at her, then, as she indicated she was calling police, he allegedly threw her phone out of the car and physically assaulted her, according to the allegations.

She testified that when she was able to escape from the car, Trythall allegedly drove off, leaving her on the side of the road searching frantically for her phone.

At one point, however, the woman testified that she had sent Trythall one or more text messages asking him to come pick her up, which appeared to contradict her earlier allegations that he went to find her on his own.

But Trythall’s account of the events of that early morning in April tell a far different story, defense attorneys Ryan Guptill and Jeffrey Odland told the jury.

When Trythall and the woman left the Londonderry bar after having “a couple of drinks,” he brought her home, dropped her off and went home and went to bed – alone.

Guptill and Odland characterized the police investigation as “shoddy” and “a rush to judgment,” telling the jury that police, after arresting Trythall and transporting him to headquarters, either “didn’t want to talk with him” or dismissed his account of the events.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.