The verdict is in for Dion Roberts, who was on trial on a charge of sexual assault last week.

A Whitehorse jury has found him not guilty.

The Yukon Supreme Court jury reached its decision after 9 p.m. Friday.

The Crown asked for the jury to be polled, which revealed all 12 jurors agreed with the not guilty ruling.

The jury began deliberating before 3 p.m. Friday.

Justice Leigh Gower brought court back in session at 9 p.m. to see where the jury was at in its decision-making and to consider possible sequestering.

Roberts and his lawyers, Benjamin Bruce Warnsby and Mark Reynolds, gave a statement after the verdict.

Warnsby said that although the jury had ruled in his client’s favour, there are no winners in this case. He did thank the jury members for their decision.

Reynolds expanded on this point, saying neither the complainant nor Roberts are better off after Feb. 9, 2016.

The case has brought his client to financial ruin, and the complainant is clearly enduring difficulties emotionally, he said.

Roberts himself said he just wants to go home, marry his fiancée and move on with his life.

Before the deliberations began, both the Crown and the defence made their closing arguments, and Justice Gower made his final instructions to the jury.

Warnsby told the jury this was not a case about a proposed family relationship between the complainant and the accused. It was not about how much contact both parties have had over the years, he added.

Even if the jury members did not approve of Roberts’ action on the night of Feb. 8 and early morning of Feb. 9, 2016, Warnsby said, they could not convict him based on that.

To be convicted, Roberts must have committed a crime.

Warnsby said the biggest question in the case was whether the complainant had consented to the sexual encounter.

“Only two people can tell us what happened,” he said.

He said the complainant was sure what had happened that night. She was drunk and unsure of the timeline.

Warnsby said her roommate, who had testified earlier in the trial, had not been a direct witness to the sexual encounter. She had only witnessed the aftermath.

Warnsby reminded the jury that the defence has no burden to prove anything. The Crown must prove a crime had been committed beyond a reasonable doubt. He suggested the jury look for missing pieces in the overall story of that night.

Another key question Warnsby wanted the jury to consider was if the story given made sense.

According to the complainant, Roberts opened the door to her room, walked in, walked past her dog, laid down next to her under the sheets and took off her leggings.

“It doesn’t make sense,” the lawyer said.

Warnsby said Roberts had had no requirement to testify. He explained Roberts had done so because he’d had nothing to hide.

He admitted to lying to the RCMP even though that information could affect the jury.

Facing his lies made Roberts cry on the stand. It was severe enough that court had to be stood down.

Warnsby said that people may be inclined to not believe people who lie but asked the jury to consider the circumstances.

Roberts is a young aboriginal man who was 28 years old at the time of his arrest. He was fighting hard to have a good life, and suddenly it was unravelling.

He found himself under a police investigation and panicked. Warnsby said that is understandable.

He concluded by stating that the series of events that night may have traumatized the complainant, but that does not mean a crime had taken place.

Crown counsel Amy Porteous conducted the final argument for the Crown.

She said there is a lot of misinformation out there of the definitions of sexual assault as well as consent. She said Roberts may not have even been sure of those definitions.

The question of the case, according to the Crown, is not if Roberts knew the law or felt he had done nothing wrong.

“Just because someone doesn’t feel guilty doesn’t mean they are not guilty,” Porteous said.

Porteous argued that Roberts’ eight to 10 years spent as a corrections officer should have made him well aware of the procedures when someone is arrested and processed, making the idea that he panicked completely unbelievable.

She said he could have told the truth to RCMP Const. Amy Pike and admitted to sleeping with the complainant if he truly believed he had done nothing wrong. Instead, he attempted to lie his way out of the situation, Porteous told the court.

She asked the jury members if they could really believe he is telling the truth now once he admitted to lying.

Porteous explained that the various differences in the testimony of the complainant and the roommate show they did not concoct a false narrative to frame Roberts. The incident occurred two years ago, and different people remember events differently, she said.

Porteous warned the jury on making assumptions based on how they would react to the same situation. Their decision cannot be based on that because people react differently to scary situation.

Overall, the Crown asked the jury members if they believe the complainant. Porteous said only one person’s dignity was violated that night: the complainant’s.