Pamela Phillips was found guilty this afternoon of killing her ex-husband, real-estate investor Gary Triano, who died when a pipe bomb exploded in his car in 1996.
Jurors deliberated Thursday and Friday before reaching the first-degree murder verdict today in the Pima County Superior Court trial that lasted nearly seven weeks and included testimony from nearly 100 witnesses. She was also found guilty of conspiracy.
She faces a punishment of 25 years to life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction.
Prosecutors said the former Tucsonan had her ex-husband killed because she resented losing her big-spending lifestyle after her divorce.
Phillips was accused of having Triano killed on Nov. 1, 1996. Triano, a real estate investor, died when a pipe bomb exploded in the front seat of his car in the parking lot of the La Paloma resort.
Phillips was arrested and charged with the crime in 2009.
For the prosecution, the case was simple: Phillips was broke and had her ex-husband killed to get her hands on $2 million from a life insurance policy.
Defense attorney Paul Eckerstrom had argued the case against Phillips was based on the word of a con man who was trying to bilk her out of an insurance payout on her former husband's death.
Much of the state's case hinged on the seemingly secretive arrangement between Phillips and Ronald Young, a man she had a relationship with in Aspen, Colo., after her divorce from Triano.
Young, who in 2010 was convicted of first-degree murder in Triano's death, helped Phillips with a business venture and acted as a financial adviser of sorts. He later, however, was accused in a series of frauds.
The state used a cache of emails, FedEx records and surreptitiously recorded phone conversations between Phillips and Young to show an arrangement.
Check back for updates. Read the complete story on the trial in Wednesday's Star.
