When the jury returned with a guilty verdict after five hours of deliberation, Vencil Leo Ash III went into an emotionally charged tirade--an outburst directed toward local police and the family of the victim, Ryan Guitron.

Judge Derek C. Weimer presided over the trial, which found Ash guilty of first-degree murder in the 2003 death of Guitron, a Fort Collins, Colorado resident. The trial began on June 25, ending on the afternoon of July 2 in the Kimball County District Court.

“I believe justice is being served and I thank everyone involved--especially the jurors whose job was most important,” Weimer said. “Furthermore, my heart and prayers go out to the family of the victim. I hope they can find peace and closure now.”

The judge thanked jurors and all those involved for their service. He pointed out that the length of time the jurors deliberated proved their serious consideration of the evidence.

Ash had initially denied involvement in the shooting, according to reports.

The defense, led by Kelly S. Breen, an employee of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy,  played its opening hand in May, when it asked the court to suppress videos of interviews that investigators conducted with Ash on April 7, 2010. In these Ash apparently admitted to murdering Guitron.

Judge Wiemer denied these requests.

Documents showed that after the interviews in question, Ash led investigators to the site where he shot and killed the victim. Breen also pressed the issue of coercion, which investigators repeatedly denied.

The initial break in disappearance of Guitron came on April 1, 2010, when the police responded to a domestic disturbance in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and arrested Ash, who was living there at the time.

The arrest was anything but routine.

Kelly Meehan-Ash fled during the standoff. After being picked up and questioned, she told police that Ash was holed up inside with a high-powered hunting rifle.

According to the federal complaint, they considered Ash a felon in possession.

During an investigation into his past, authorities discovered that Ash was a former roommate of the then-missing Guitron. Officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found information while probing the case that led them to believe Ash had been involved in a homicide.

Meehan-Ash apparently confirmed this, telling investigators that Ash took Guitron to an abandoned farmstead in southwest Kimball County, near Bushnell, in the fall of 2003, shot him in the head and buried his body in a woodpile.

Throughout the trial Breen suggested self-defense as a motive. The victim apparently believed he, Ash and Meehan-Ash were traveling to meet a source to purchase methamphetamine. In statements the attorney opened the possibility that a fight broke out between the two men.

In the defense scenario, Meehan pulled the trigger, killing Guitron in order to save herself and Ash.

The jury was not swayed by such arguments. Ash already has a lengthy criminal history. He was sentenced to four years in state prison in 1998 after pleading guilty to felony assault and vehicular eluding police. Other charges from the 1998 incident, including arson and using a gun while drunk, were dismissed.

Authorities long suspected foul play in Guitron’s disappearance.

“It was just a long trial,” said county clerk Cathy Sibal afterward. Proceedings required a strong law enforcement presence and other local resources. Meehan-Ash even requested to be moved to another facility for safety--a requested that was granted by the court.

Ash’s sentencing trial is set for August 21. Meehan-Ash, who is charged with be an accessory to the murder of Guitron, is awaiting a status hearing also scheduled for August in Kimball.

“No matter what the sentence, he will be transported back to the Federal Penitentiary before serving his sentence in Nebraska,” reported Kimball County Sheriff Harry Gillway.