BOSTON (AP) – A jury on Monday acquitted a 33-year-old Lynn man of killing a reputed mobster at a strip club in what prosecutors said was an act of vengeance.

William Angelesco was acquitted on a charge of first degree murder in the December 2001 shooting of Peter J. DeVito at the Squire Lounge in Revere.

The jury in Suffolk Superior Court deliberated for parts of three days before finding Angelesco innocent. In September, Angelesco backed out of a plea deal that would have called for an 18- to 20-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors said Angelesco had held a grudge against DeVito since the previous summer, when bouncers at DeVito’s nightclub in Providence, R.I. roughed up Angelesco when he pulled a knife in the club. He believed that DeVito had ordered the beating, said David Procopio, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley.