CLEVELAND – At least three jurors in Cleveland say the evidence was so thin against a man jailed for weeks in an assault case that they want to give him their juror pay.

The jury quickly acquitted 19-year-old Demrick McCloud on Friday. He'd been charged with leading other teens to beat a high school student and threaten him with a gun on Oct. 13. McCloud was arrested that day and held in jail until the trial.

The three jurors tell The Plain Dealer newspaper there was a "sheer lack of evidence," so they'll each give McCloud the $100 they were paid for jury service if he earns a high school equivalency degree.

A prosecutor's spokesman maintains in a statement that the victim was steadfast in identifying McCloud as an attacker.