Donald “Doc” Nash was found guilty of capital murder by a Crawford County jury at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Phelps County Courthouse in Rolla.

The victim, Judy Lynn Spencer of Salem was strangled to death with her own shoelace, shot in the neck with a shotgun and dumped in an old outhouse foundation in rural Dent County in March 1982.

The jury was excused to deliberate a verdict at 3:15 p.m. It sent messages to the court on three occasions asking to view evidence and returned with a verdict four hours later.

Senior Judge Douglas E. Long Jr. reiterated the automatic sentence of life imprisonment without parole for a minimum of 50 years on the capital-murder charge.

Nash remained stoic as the verdict was read and the jury polled. A quiet courtroom was interrupted with the sounds of crying relatives of both Spencer’s and Nash’s.

The fourth and final day of Nash’s trial saw closing statements by both Assistant Attorney General and Prosecutor Theodore Bruce and Defense Attorney Frank Carlson.