Beauty queen cleared of murder

A US beauty queen who shot and killed her boyfriend was acquitted of murder today after saying she acted in self-defence.

Sharron Nicole Redmond admitted shooting her boyfriend outside the home of another woman he was dating, but said she thought he was reaching for a gun. He did not have a weapon.

Redmond, 23, had faced an automatic life sentence if convicted of the murder of Kevin Shorter in 2003. Four months earlier she had been crowned Miss Savannah.

The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for just over nine hours at the court in Savannah, Georgia.

Redmond gasped and sobbed as she heard the verdict.