CONWAY — More than a decade after the crime, a jury on Friday took less than an hour to convict Richard Conte, a former physician accused of murdering his exwife’s first husband and another man.

The jury found Conte, 63, guilty of two counts of capital murder in the May 2002 execution-style slayings of a wealthy Conway businessman, Carter Elliott, 49, and a family friend, Timmy Wayne Robertson, 25, of Star City.

Judge Charles E. Clawson Jr., ruling in Faulkner County Circuit Court, sentenced Conte to life in prison without parole and to two separate and consecutive 15-year sentences for using firearms in commission of a felony.

After hearing the verdicts, James Robertson, the father of the younger victim, said, “I feel a whole lot better. It ain’tgoing to bring my son back. But I feel a whole lot better. It’s been years.”

The formal charges filed against Conte listed his son’s name as Timothy, but Robertson said his son’s name was Timmy.

James Robertson sat at the end of the same courtroom bench each day of the trial. At one point, the evidence presented - pictures of his dead son, who was shot in the head - was so graphic thatRobertson held a hand up to his forehead.

But he never shied from looking at Conte.

“I’ve been looking at him for four days,” he said of Conte, a large, bearded man who was removed from the courtroom with his hands cuffed to the wheelchair he uses because of multiple sclerosis.

Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said he thought the quick verdict “spoke to the strength of the case.”

Defense attorney Jack Lassiter said he was sure Conte would appeal.

Elliott’s adult son, Trey, broke down in tears after hearing the verdict. He and his mother, Lark G. Swartz, embraced each other for a few moments.

Extending his arm across the courtroom aisle to comfort Trey was Randy Long, minister at The Church Alive in Conway and a longtime friend of the Elliott family.

“I’m just very full of joy right now, very thankful,” Trey Elliott said.

His sister, Ashley Waldron, said she was “thankful to God.”

Waldron, who had been crying, said she was not bitter that it had taken so long to bring Conte to trial.

“All things happen at the right time in the right season,” she said.

The prosecution hadwaived the death penalty, the only other punishment allowed for capital murder in Arkansas.

The jury of seven women and five men got the case at 3:20 p.m. and had reached a verdict by about 4:10 p.m.

Conte did not testify on his own behalf and said, “no” when the judge asked if he wanted to make a statement later.

Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Troy Braswell and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joan Shipley depicted Conte as an avid gun collector and scorned lover who sought to impress Swartz with wild tales of military adventures in foreign countries.

A surgeon who is Swartz’s brother-in-law testified that it appeared Conte had even made incisions in his own body to insert bullets so that people would think he had been shot while on a mission in Afghanistan.

Swartz, previously known as Lark Gathright-Elliott, filed for divorce from Conte in 2002 after less than a year of marriage. She had been married to Elliott for 18 years.

Prosecutors said Conte was so obsessed with her that he left notes, cards and flowers in her Utah home when she wasn’t there, accessed e-mails she had sent to men he viewed as romantic rivals, and ultimately drugged and kidnapped her about a month after the killings.

Conte was charged with the killings in August 2011, just as he was about to complete a Nevada prison sentence for the kidnapping.

Authorities have said the killings took place the weekend of May 18-19, 2002. The exact time remains unclear. But a Taco Bell receipt found in Carter Elliott’s home and a medical examiner’s observations suggest the killings took place after 8:51 p.m. May 18.

“We were confident in the case that we put forward,” Hiland said. “No case is a slam-dunk. A 10-year-old case certainly puts its share of challenges.”

Hiland spoke of the way Conte that, a former emergency-room physician, “so thoroughly planned his murders.”

The defense had pounced on the lack of forensic evidence such as DNA, ballistics and fingerprints, and the lack of a witness who could place Conte in Arkansas that weekend.

“The jury today didn’t reward him [Conte] for being a good criminal, and circumstantial evidence is still goodevidence. ... You just have to ... piece it together,” Hiland said.

Conway Police Chief A.J. Gary was a major in the patrol division and among the officers who went to the Elliott house after the bodies were found.

“This has been a long time coming,” Gary said as he stood at the back of the courtroom. “A lot of people have been wanting closure, especially the family, and they can get that now.”

Gary also praised the prosecution.

Hiland had made the failure to file charges earlier a campaign issue when he successfully challenged then-Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden in 2010.

Vaden and his predecessor, former Prosecuting Attorney H.G. Foster, who now is a circuit judge, said in August 2011 that they did not believe there was sufficient evidence at the time to obtain a conviction, even though they personally thought Conte had committed the crime.

Contacted Friday, Foster said, “I am pleased by the verdict and very, very proud [of] the work that was done by the Arkansas State Police, the Conway Police Department, the prosecutor’s office and all of the investigators and support personnel whoworked so hard to bring this case to this final resolution.”

Vaden did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Hiland said he could speak only to “the decisions that I made.”

“I don’t know what led to the decisions by the previous prosecutors,” he said. “They have to live with that.

“We made this decision notwithstanding the uncertainty of the outcome. We don’t make decisions because we’re guaranteed an outcome.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/19/2013