A Brighton jury today found Jack Branson guilty of cultivating marijuana, but not guilty of possession of more than 8 ounces of the drug.

He was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.

Branson was growing the plants in the backyard of his Thornton home. He claimed he had the right to grow the plants under Colorado's medical marijuana law. His lawyers contended a physician verbally recommended he use the drug to deal with the effects of the HIV virus he has lived with for 20 years.