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Provo • "It's over. It's over. It's over."
Janet Wagner repeated the same words between sobs Wednesday, while clutching her family members outside a Provo courtroom. Two years after her daughter, Heidy Truman, was shot and killed in her Orem home, and after more than 15 hours of deliberating over two days, a 4th District Court jury found Truman's husband, 32-year-old Conrad Truman, guilty of pulling the trigger on Sept. 30, 2012.
For Heidy Truman's family, the guilty verdict was at first a shock — then a relief.
"Thank God it's over," Wagner said through tears. "This has been a two-year journey. It's so hard. We knew the truth had to come through. We knew Heidy. We knew that this was the only possibility. We were just hoping and praying that the jury would hear her story. And they have."
The eight-person jury deliberated for seven hours on Tuesday, and over eight hours on Wednesday before finding the Orem man guilty of first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstruction of justice.
Conrad Truman faces a mandatory prision sentence of 15 years to life on the murder charge when he is sentenced Dec. 15 by Judge Samuel McVey. The obstructing justice conviction is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Defense attorney Ronald Yengich told news reporters that he disagreed with the verdict, which came just after 5 p.m.
"He's sad," Yengich said of his client. "He didn't feel that they had enough evidence to convict him, because he didn't do it. That's what he said — basically, those exact words."
Conrad Truman's family left the couthouse — some in tears — without commenting to reporters.
Prosecutors told the jury Tuesday morning during closing arguments that the evidence shows 25-year-old Heidy Truman was murdered that September night.
"Heidy Truman was murdered in cold blood by her husband," Deputy Utah County Attorney Craig Johnson told jurors.
But Yengich repeatedly told the jury that his client was innocent, and did not pull the trigger.
Yengich argued that prosecutors did not prove that Conrad Truman murdered his wife, and showed only "that a young lady died from a gunshot wound to the head."
Yengich told a jury during opening statements four weeks ago, and reiterated Tuesday, that Heidy Truman likely died by accident — that she shot herself when she slipped and fell while holding a handgun after taking a bath.
"Did she adjust her towel?" Yengich asked the jury. "Did she bump into a wall? Did she slip and fall? You don't know and I don't know and they [prosecutors] don't know."
In his rebuttal, Johnson pointed to the medical examiner report that showed the gun was pressed against Heidy Truman's head when the shot was fired. He said this shows the death wasn't an accident.
"A woman draws a bath, gets naked and then comes out and shoots herself," he said. "Is that reasonable? It's not."
Last Thursday, Conrad Truman took the witness stand in his own defense, telling the jurors several times that he did not kill his wife.
Truman was outwardly calm and soft-spoken throughout his testimony. He told the jury about his marriage to Heidy Truman, and how they would leave love notes for one another throughout their home.
Eventually, Conrad Truman discussed the night of the shooting.
The night Heidy Truman died, her husband said they had been watching the television shows "Dexter" and "Homeland" and drinking Maker's Mark whiskey when, at some point, he heard yelling outside.
Conrad Truman testified that he grabbed his dog and his gun and went to investigate. He did see a strange man on his walk, he testified, and told his wife about it when he returned home.
The couple continued talking about various topics, including whether they should get another dog, when Heidy Truman became irritated with him and decided to take a bath, the husband testified.
After about 20 minutes, Conrad Truman said he heard a pop and looked at his wife, who was standing naked in the hallway.
"It was my wife," he testified. "There was a choking sound and blood. Everything happened so fast. It's way too difficult to explain."
The husband testified that somehow both he and his wife ended up on the floor. He tried to perform CPR and called 911.
When police arrived, they found blood everywhere — in the kitchen where Heidy Truman's naked body lay, in the front entry, the living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and on Truman himself.
Police began to suspect Conrad Truman of murder when he told conflicting stories about her death, saying at different times that an intruder could have been in the home, that someone may have shot her through a window or that his wife shot herself.
"I know I didn't have a gun," Conrad Truman testified. "I know I didn't shoot a gun. I was just doing the best I could to find an analytical way to find out what happened."
Prosecutors initially said the motive for the alleged murder was because Conrad Truman stood to inherit nearly $1 million in life insurance benefits when his wife died. While they presented evidence of the Trumans' life insurance policies at trial, they backed away from labeling it as a "motive" for the crime. Instead, Johnson argued that the shooting was the result of an alcohol-fueled disagreement or argument before Heidy Truman took her bath.
"That argument plus alcohol plus guns equal murder in this case," Johnson said, but also emphasized that prosecutors did not need to provide a motive for a jury to return a guilty verdict.
jmiller@sltrib.com Twitter: @jm_miller