A jury on Monday acquitted a part-time auto repairman who had been accused of growing 31 marijuana plants in the city garage he rented.

Jeffrey C. Smith, 52, testified that he had no idea how the potted plants came to be living in a bathroom of the 128 S. Bluff St. garage he’d rented for more than a year.

“I was convinced from day one that Mr. Smith had nothing to do with the grow operation, and obviously someone else who had access to the building put those plants there,” said Smith’s defense attorney Charles Nedz.

The building’s landlord, Gregory Kuntz of Blairsville, Indiana County, found the plants behind a locked door while showing the garage to a new potential tenant on May 29.

Kuntz testified that Smith hadn’t been regularly paying his $500 a month rent.

Kuntz alerted city police.

From the start of the investigation, Smith denied any knowledge of the plants.

Taking the witness stand Monday, Smith said he initially rented the garage to care for his own vehicles. Later, he did mechanical work for customers and teamed up with a partner, John Todd Tirk of Butler Township, who did body work.

Smith alleged that Tirk was one of a half dozen people who had a key and access to the garage.

Other people included a city man who stored his motorcycle in the garage and the landlord. Tirk’s father also testified that he visited the garage occasionally when someone left the door unlocked for him.

Smith said he only visited the garage two or three days a week. And he hadn’t been in the pot-growing bathroom since he fixed a pipe that had frozen and burst five months earlier. The garage has a second bathroom that is closer to the work area.

“I’ve spent hours trying to figure out who would possibly grow marijuana plants in there,” Smith testified. And later, he added. “I don’t use drugs, and I don’t condone the use of drugs.”

Assistant District Attorney Mark Lope, in prosecuting the case, questioned Smith’s testimony and credibility.

For example, Lope pointed out Smith allegedly told his partner that the garage’s rent was $1,000 a month and was collecting $500, which was the true total, each month from Tirk.

Lope also questioned Smith’s answer that he was not in financial trouble at the time of his arrest and other details in his testimony that did not match Smith’s earlier testimony. Lope told the jury that it appeared Smith “lied even when it didn’t matter.”

Smith said he is a Butler native who moved to Palm Beach, Fla., in 1995. He still was living there but visiting Pennsylvania to help care for his father, who has diabetes, when these allegations surfaced.

Smith said he has since moved into his parents’ home on East Patterson Avenue.

He testified that in addition to fixing and selling cars, his vocations have included helping his father with his water purifying business. He was a mortgage broker and in the video production business in South Florida.

“He’s thrilled that he was exonerated, and he’s ready to move on with his life,” Nedz said.