PENSACOLA, Fla. — A jury has awarded $18.28 million to a road paver who accused the Pensacola News Journal of casting him in a false light by implying he murdered his wife.

The six-member jury agreed on Dec. 12 with Joe Anderson Jr.'s contention that the article contributed to delays on permits he sought to build a cement plant, and that those delays greatly increased the project's eventual cost.

The entire award was for compensatory damages. Anderson, the founder of Anderson Columbia Co., received nothing for alleged mental anguish, and jurors were unable to agree on whether to award punitive damages. The judge declared a mistrial on the punitive damages issue and delayed entering the judgment on the compensatory damages.

Anderson was seeking $50 million in actual damages and "billions" in punitive damages.

"I'm just delighted with the verdict," said Anderson, whose company is one of Florida's biggest road-building contractors.

His lawyer asked for a retrial on the punitive damages issue, while the newspaper's parent, Gannett Co., may seek to have the compensatory damages award thrown out.

"We're disappointed and we are considering our options," said Bob Bernius, an attorney for Gannett, one of the nation's largest media organizations.

The suit focused on a 1998 article about the Lake City-based paving company's political influence. It also noted that Anderson had "shot and killed" his wife, Ira, 10 years earlier.

Two sentences later, the story showed authorities had determined the shooting was a hunting accident. Anderson's lawyers acknowledged the facts were true, but argued the News Journal slanted them to sell more papers.

"They made Joe Anderson look as if he was a murderer," attorney Willie Gary said in his closing argument.

Newspaper lawyer Robert Kerrigan said in his closing argument that it would be unfair to hold the News Journal liable for millions of dollars in alleged damages for publishing the truth about Anderson.

"Is the truth sufficient for him to say that he feels it put him in a false light?" Kerrigan asked.

In videotaped testimony jurors saw on Dec. 11, reporter Amie Streater said the hunting accident was relevant to the political influence story because Anderson had been on probation after pleading guilty to mail fraud in a Hillsborough County bribery case. Two years were added to his probationary term because he violated the terms of probation by using a modern firearm.

Streater, now a reporter for the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas, was dropped as a defendant as the trial began.

Anderson alleged the implication he murdered his wife prompted Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs in 1999 to deny an air quality permit he needed to build a Suwannee County cement plant. Struhs later approved the permit with special environmental conditions.

In videotaped testimony Struhs said the only reason he initially denied the permit was Anderson Columbia's poor environmental record.