Shawn Smoot will spend the rest of his life in prison.
It took jurors less than four hours on Wednesday to find Shawn Smoot guilty of first-degree murder in the October 2011 death of Brooke Morris, a former love who also worked for him.
Prosecutors say Smoot, 44, shot the 23-year-old and dumped her body in Roane County.
The victim's mother, Tina Gregg, called it the worst day of her life when investigators found her daughter's body along Blair Road.
She said justice doesn't bring closure.
"That is the only thing that gets me through, that has got me through these 2,017 days without her, is knowing that i will see her again," Gregg said. "And her body will be perfect again."
After the guilty verdict, the jury heard victim impact statements from Morris' family and friends. The sequestered jury was dismissed for the night and returned Thursday morning with their verdict.
Smoot faced a minimum of 50 years in prison. The jury also considered a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors hugging the Morris family after guilty verdict read @wbir pic.twitter.com/xMYIjDVq3j
— Madison Wade (@madisonwadeWBIR) August 3, 2016
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Closing arguments wrapped up Wednesday morning for a Knox County man accused of murdering an ex-girlfriend, and the jury is now deliberating.
Smoot said in court Tuesday he won't testify in his own defense.
His trial started last week, with prosecutors painting Smoot as a possessive, jealous man who had become violent with Morris before. They said he killed her she took out a restraining order that ruined his marriage.
The prosecution's final witness was a woman who used to work for Smoot at his insurance agency. Amy Reed Dunlinger said that Smoot was shaking and sweating when he came to the office the morning after the murder. She had heard that Brook had been killed, and that Smoot was a suspect.
"I said were you directly or indirectly involved? And he said both," she testified.
The defense began presenting their case on Tuesday, with Smoot waiving his right to testify in his own defense. An expert witness could not be in court because of a family emergency, so the jury has been looking over relevant articles written by that expert witness and other material.