Owners of La. nursing home are acquitted (AP)

Dale Sanderson, left, holds back tears Friday, Sept. 7, 2007, in St. Francisville, La., after closing arguments were heard in negligent homicide case against St. Rita's nursing home owners Salvador and Mabel Mangano. Sanderson's mother, Lucille Melerine, was one 35 patients who drowned two years ago in Hurricane Katrina's flood waters. Helping Sanderson is her daughter, Carla Dauterive. (AP Photo/Tim Mueller)AP - The owners of a nursing home where 35 patients died after Hurricane Katrina were acquitted Friday of negligent homicide and cruelty charges for not evacuating the facility as the storm approached. The jury took about four hours to acquit Sal and Mabel Mangano, the husband-and-wife owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, just outside of New Orleans.