Former crack cocaine dealer Michael Jones was convicted Thursday of stabbing and strangling a female customer six years ago in Salt Lake City.
The victim's mother burst into tears as the verdict was read by a 3rd District Court clerk.
"I've waited six years for justice," Frances Nilson said later.
Jones, who now faces up to life in prison, initially appeared to have no reaction. Moments later, he leaned over and put his head in his hands.
A jury of four men and four women deliberated 3½ hours before finding Jones guilty of first-degree felony counts of murder and aggravated robbery, and one count of second-degree felony drug distribution.
Jones, 43, is scheduled for sentencing April 16 before Judge Michele Christiansen. He faces up to life in prison.
On Feb. 23, 2004, Tara Cassandra Brennan, 28, was strangled with a belt and her throat was slashed. Her body was found the next day in the back seat of her car at Poplar Grove Park, near 800 South and 1200 West. Her wallet containing about $200 was missing.
DNA from both Jones and Brennan was later found on the belt used to choke her, under Brennan's fingernails and on a cigarette butt found in the victim's car.
During closing arguments on Thursday, defense attorney Monty Sleight claimed there were many ways Jones' DNA could have ended up at the crime scene.
Jones had admitted to police he sold crack to Brennan, that they smoked the drug together in her car and then shared a cigarette. But Jones claimed the woman was alive and well when he left her.
"It is easier to catch DNA than to catch a cold," Sleight said.
But prosecutor Katherine Bernards-Goodman countered: "DNA doesn't go crawling up under your fingernails."
"DNA doesn't lie," Bernards-Goodman added. "It has no motive, no bias -- it is what it is. It can convict or acquit."
Nilson had testified that her daughter was a honor student who became addicted to drugs a year earlier while attending law school in California.
Earlier on the day Brennan died, Nilson testified, her daughter put a new battery in her 1989 Honda Accord, which had been sitting idle.
Brennan then said she was going to take the car "around the block" for a test drive. Instead, she drove to the homeless shelter near 200 South and Rio Grande Street, where she met Jones.
Nilson said it was the last time she saw her daughter alive. "It's a sad story of addiction," Nilson told The Tribune .
