NORWICH – A jury found a man not guilty of driving while intoxicated but guilty of assault Wednesday in a case that involved no witnesses or police actually seeing him behind the wheel.

Rudolph S. Sines was found not guilty of felony DWI and guilty of third degree assault, a misdemeanor, after prosecutors contended that on at around 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11, 2009 he drove from the Rite Aid parking lot in Norwich to his home along State Highway 23 a few miles away, intoxicated.

After arriving home, Sines is accused of engaging in a domestic dispute where he shoved and kicked his wife because she went out drinking the night before, said District Attorney Joseph McBride.

The key witness in the case for prosecutors was a friend of the family, Megan Eddy, who testified she dropped an intoxicated Sines off at his car in the Rite Aid parking lot after finding him walking along the street. Eddy said she never saw Sines get behind the wheel of the vehicle, but after driving around the block she found that he and the car had left the area.

Eddy said Sines was angry with his wife for an incident that involved her being out late the night before. Eddy told jurors she received a call from the wife soon after dropping off Sines, when she was told the two were engaged in a violent confrontation. Eddy then dialed 911 and reported the domestic dispute to police before traveling to the couple’s home.

New York State Trooper Christopher Marinelli and Investigator Jason Besset responded to the scene and told the jury they found a car warm to the touch and fresh tire tracks in the driveway. They also testified that Sines was intoxicated.

Besset said the officers split up at the scene; he talked to Sines outside the home and Marinelli went inside to talk to the wife.

“He told me he was drunk and that he had driven home that way,” Besset testified.

Defense Attorney Frederick J. Neroni pointed out that no one else heard the alleged oral admission and that his client was claiming he never said it.