VIDALIA — A Concordia Parish jury found a Natchez man guilty of second-degree murder late Thursday night in the 2014 killing of a Monterey resident.

With hands held in unison on the front row, the murdered man’s family breathed a small sigh of relief when the verdict was read.

The defendant, George Byrd, showed no reaction as sheriff’s deputies cuffed him and took him back to jail.

Byrd was found guilty of stabbing John Perritt nine times with a knife at the victim’s Monterey house trailer in September 2014. Perritt’s body was found wrapped in blankets on Sept. 22, 2014, by his nephew, who called the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“I am happy — we’ve been waiting for this,” said Perritt’s adopted son, Jason Perritt, whose eyes were teary after hearing the conviction.

“My dad can finally have peace.”

Perritt’s sister Adalene Duncan said John Perritt was a good brother, father, son and community member.

“He was always such a happy person, and if someone — anyone — needed something, he would have brought it to them,” she said. “He was always bringing food out of his garden to the elderly.”

Duncan said the family didn’t know about his secret homosexual lifestyle, but she wishes he had told them.

“We would have still loved him,” she said. “He didn’t deserve this — that fellow (George Byrd) could have walked away. If this was just about money, he could have walked away.

“He’ll never know what he’s done to us.”

Even some jurors cried during closing statements given by District Attorney Brad Burget, as he started to raise his voice and point to Byrd as the Perritt’s murderer.

While Burget agreed with the defense that no physical evidence existed to connect Byrd to the scene where Perritt’s body was found or in the car found later, all the testimony pointed to one person, he said.“He is counting on y’all being a bunch of fools, that everyone is lying, except him,” Burget said. “Don’t let him get away with murder, don’t let another John Perritt die.”

Defense attorney Darrell Hickman argued that Burget had built a house of cards, that if you take one piece of circumstantial evidence out, it will fall. Witnesses testified, the last time someone spoke to the victim, Perritt told them Byrd did not show up for their meeting on the night of Sept. 18.

“We do know one thing, George was not there,” Hickman said. “He could not have committed this murder because he was not there. You must come back with not guilty.”

Hickman said he disagreed with the jury’s decision and that he would consider appealing after later talking with his client.

Deliberations started at 8:37 p.m. and the verdict came back at 10:30 p.m. Key testimony in the case largely centered on the phone records of Perritt and three witnesses who knew Byrd.

The state began to paint the picture that Byrd was involved after detectives obtained phone records and were led to Kenzell Isaac, who testified that Byrd was known to have homosexual sex for money.

Further, Isaac testified he wanted in on the sex for money, and after letting Byrd use his phone, Isaac contacted Perritt and pleaded to try to have sex with him.

Head investigator Phillip Webber said two witnesses, both acquaintances of Byrd’s, had remarkable knowledge of information from the crime scene that had not been made public.

Both witnesses told investigators that Perritt had been stabbed to death, was wrapped up in blankets and rugs, the murder happened in Louisiana near a body of water and that he and another man went back to clean up afterward. Washington was able to correctly place Perritt’s abandoned car at Reeves and Reynolds Lumber Co., Webber said.

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder in Louisiana is life without benefits.

Byrd is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. May 5.