NORTHAMPTON — After an ordeal lasting nearly two years, Brian Camp finally heard the two words he’d been waiting to hear that entire time: “Not guilty.”

Camp, 24, of Southampton, smiled in the Hampshire Superior Court courtroom on Monday shortly after a jury reached its verdict in his manslaughter trial in the shooting of Johnathan Letendre, 27, of Northampton.

Letendre, who once had a relationship with Camp’s girlfriend Brooke Janik, broke into the Chesterfield home where Camp and Janik were sleeping shortly after Christmas 2022. After a lengthy physical fight, Camp shot Letendre twice with a Sig Sauer pistol, with an eight-minute interval between shots, the final bullet entering Letendre’s head and killing him.

The Northwestern district attorney’s office argued that while the first shot easily fell within the category of self-defense, it was the second shot that led to Camp’s manslaughter charge. First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne argued that Letendre had been effectively neutralized by the first shot, which entered into his lower rib cage, and that the second shot to the head had been a needless act of vigilante justice.

“We knew from the start it would be a difficult case,” Gagne said. “Nevertheless, we felt it was the right thing to do,” speaking of bringing the charges against Camp.

But the arguments by the prosecution did not seem to sway the jury, which took less than five hours to arrive at a not-guilty verdict, much to the relief of Camp, Janik, and their families, who were in the courtroom for the verdict. Camp declined to comment after the verdict, but he was emotionally embraced by his family afterward.

Most of the case presented at trial relied on a nearly 20-minute 911 call made by Janik, in which the two shots could be audibly heard, and video of the initial interview given by Camp to State Police a few hours after the incident had occurred. In the video, Camp said he had fired “one, maybe two” shots into Letendre, but that they would have been consecutively, seemingly making no mention of the shot that killed Letendre.

He also stated regarding Letendre’s actions, “I hope if I ever did that, somebody would put me down.”

Camp maintained at his trial, including on cross-examination by Gagne, that he had not mentioned it to police simply because he was still processing the traumatic events of that night and did not recall having fired the second shot. In the initial interview by police, Camp can be heard telling police that he had a hard time putting the events in sequential order.

“I was having a hard time processing what just happened,” Camp said during trial testimony of his mental state at that time, admitting some of his statements to police were not accurate. “My mental state was blurry, and jumbled up at best.”

During closing arguments Monday morning, Camp’s defense attorney, Tom Kokonowski, reminded the jury that a photo taken by Camp of Letendre shortly after the first shot, at the advice of his boss, showed Letendre on the ground in a different position then when State Police arrived, indicating that Letendre had been able to move in the interval between.

“Thank goodness that for a couple of minutes, Brian Camp was a self-employed evidence collector,” Kokonowski said.

Kokonowski also defended Camp’s conduct during the encounter given the circumstances, noting that Letendre, at 6 feet tall and 190 pounds, held a significant size advantage over Camp, who stands at 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds.

“I’m pretty sure there was no manual that was drawn up on how to make decisions when this is going on,” Kokonowski said. “This man [Letendre] was set on, at least, killing Brian Camp.”

Had he received a guilty verdict, Camp could have faced up to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter charge. Instead, he will be going home to Janik and their two children.

Gagne said although the DA’s office was “disappointed” by the verdict, they understood the jury’s verdict.

“A lot of them probably thought, ‘What would I do in that situation?’” Gange said.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.