Jodie Hill cried as a Supreme Court jury found her not guilty of murder and not guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Warning: This story contains details some readers might find confronting.
Ms Hill, 45, was on trial for the 2023 murder of an elderly man at his Dimboola home, 340 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
She pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter.
Throughout the four week trial before Justice Jane Dixon, Ms Hill told the court she did not cause harm to 72-year-old Mr John Hunter.
The jury took a week to deliberate the matter.
'Bullshit story'
Earlier in the trial, Ms Hill said her jail cell confession to a covert police operative after her arrest, where she said she gouged Mr Hunter's eyes out with secateurs, was a "bullshit story".
Ms Hill told the court she made up lies to the undercover police officer to intimidate her and shut her up while they shared the holding cell.
The court heard that while in the holding cell Ms Hill told a covert police officer she "popped his [Mr Hunter's] eyes out" with secateurs before throwing the tool in the Wimmera River.
"Gouged his eyes out with f****** secateurs and tied his legs and knocked him out with a hammer and just," Ms Hill told the covert police operative, the court heard.
"Excellent, yeah, excellent [inaudible] yeah, I just popped his eyes out, like Tommy [Thomas Clarke] killed him [Mr Hunter] with a hammer [inaudible] killed him with a hammer and, um, like I said, we got rid of the evidence and blood.
"I'm not stupid, just for a bit of fun."
Mr Hunter was found dead with his eyes gouged, genitals mutilated and pictures carved into his skin on the evening of January 23, 2023.