A Pulaski Township man who was sentenced to death for killing four people -- including three small girls -- before he won a new trial was acquitted of the murders Friday by a Lawrence County jury.

Thomas H. Kimbell Jr., 40, was found not guilty of charges he stabbed to death Bonnie Lou Dryfuse, 34, her two daughters, Jacqueline, 7, and Heather, 4, and the girls' cousin, Stephanie Herko, 5, in June 1994 in the Dryfuse family's mobile home on Ambrosia Road just off U.S. Route 422 in Pulaski Township.

While Kimball's family, friends and courthouse workers greeted the acquittal with applause, others were outraged by the verdict.

Cries of "baby-killer" came from Mary Herko, Stephanie's mother Mrs. Dryfuse's sister-in-law, after she left the courthouse. Mrs. Herko laid down in the middle of a road near the courthouse, where a state trooper tried to get her to stand up. An ambulance was called for Mrs. Herko.

Kimbell was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in May 1998 and sentenced to death. He appealed the verdict to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in October 2000 that his lawyer should have been allowed to explore inconsistencies in statements given by Mrs. Herko.

Kimbell's lawyer, Thomas Leslie, said Mrs. Herko told police on one occasion she was on the telephone with Mrs. Dryfuse before the killings and that Mrs. Dryfuse told her "Jake" had pulled in the driveway. In other interviews with investigators, Herko said Mrs. Dryfuse told her "someone" pulled in the driveway before getting off the phone, Leslie said.

Tom Dryfuse, who is Herko's brother and Mrs. Dryfuse's husband, goes by the nickname "Jake." Tom Dryfuse discovered the bodies.

Leslie was not allowed to raise questions about the difference in Mrs. Herko's story at the first trial, prompting the state Supreme Court to order the new trial. He was permitted to raise questions about the statements at Kimbell's second trial.

"The jury listened to evidence from two capable attorneys and made their decision," said Lawrence County District Attorney Matthew Mangino. "At this point, it's an open investigation. As soon as possible, we will be reviewing the case with the state police."

Mangino turned the case over to the state attorney general's office when he took office in 1998, because of possible conflict of interest. Before he was elected district attorney, Mangino represented Kimbell in an unrelated case. With Kimbell's acquittal, the Lawrence County D.A.'s office will handle the case again.

The jury deliberated about 13 hours over two days before acquitting Kimbell on Friday afternoon.

"What can you do? Nothing," said June Dryfuse, 64, who helped raise Tom Dryfuse when she was married to his father. They are divorced now. "I think it was messed up from day one ... but I don't know how the law works."

A phone number for Tom Dryfuse could not be found. A person who answered a telephone at a number listed for Mary Herko refused comment Friday afternoon.

"Obviously, we are very disappointed with the jury's decision," said Sean Connolly, a spokesperson with the state attorney general's office.

"We felt we had enough evidence to re-convict Mr. Kimbell of these heinous crimes. The jury however decided that we did not prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt," Connolly said.

Prosecutors had described Kimbell as a cocaine addict who lived near the victims in Heritage Hills Mobile Home Estates in Pulaski Township. Anthony Krastek, who tried the case for the Attorney General's Office, said Kimbell was coming down from a crack cocaine high when he was spotted peering into Mrs. Dryfuse's car in her driveway around the time of the killings and alleged Kimbell surprised Mrs. Dryfuse in the mobile home and killed her and the girls.

It took state police nearly 2 1/2 years after the murders before Kimbell was arrested in Ellwood City, where he had moved. At the time of his arrest, court documents said an acquaintance of Kimbell's told police Kimbell had described the killings to him in detail.

Investigators said Kimbell knew details about the case that were not public, including that the mother was killed first, the children's bodies were stacked up in the bathroom and that the back door did not open.

Police said Kimbell claimed he had learned details of the slayings by listening to a police scanner, but the prosecution said he knew details that hadn't been broadcast.

Lt. John Lechner, a retired state police officer who oversaw the investigation, said the lapse in time since the murders may have hurt the case.

"I think after (so many) years it gets more difficult to prosecute," Lechner said.

"I'm afraid he's going to wander around again and hurt someone else," said Katherine Bell, who lives about a half-mile from where the killings occurred. "There are so many stories going around ... I believe he did it."

Leslie said he expected Kimbell to be processed and released from a state prison in Greene County as early as Friday evening.