Canadian Bradley Cooper enters the courtroom for the afternoon session of the prosecution's closing arguments in his murder trial in Raleigh, N.C. on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. A North Carolina jury has found a Canadian man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2008 strangulation of his wife, who he said disappeared while out for a jog. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Shawn Rocco)SHAWN ROCCO/The Associated Press
A North Carolina jury found a Canadian man guilty of first-degree murder Thursday in the 2008 strangulation of his wife, who he said disappeared while out for a jog.
The jury returned the verdict against Bradley Cooper, 37, shortly before 4 p.m. after deliberating over three days. Mr. Cooper showed little emotion as the judge read the verdict in a Wake County courtroom as he was sentenced to life without parole.
"We're going to go home and get our lives back," said Garry Rentz, father of the victim, Nancy Cooper.
Prosecutors alleged Mr. Cooper strangled his wife in the overnight hours following a July 11, 2008, party at a neighbour's home in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh. Witnesses testified the couple, who appeared headed for divorce, argued at the party.
The Cary man said his wife went for a jog on the morning of her disappearance and never returned. Her body, clad only in a jogging bra, was found at a construction site in a subdivision less than three miles from the couple's home. Mr. Cooper had been jailed since October, 2008, when he was charged in the case. Jurors also could have convicted him of second-degree murder.
The Coopers, both Canadian citizens, married in 2000 and moved to Cary, N.C., from Calgary a year later. Ms. Cooper was a former Edmonton resident.
In closing arguments Tuesday, defence attorneys hammered repeatedly on what they called a lack of hard evidence linking the defendant to his wife's death.
"No blood, no bodily fluids, no fibres," attorney Robert Trenkle said.
Assistant district attorney Howard Cummings said Thursday the reason for the lack of that evidence was that Mr. Cooper had cleaned the home so thoroughly. But there was other evidence, he said.
"The day before your wife is missing, you Google where the body is dumped?" he said. "You would have to know something is wrong."
Defence attorneys left the courtroom without commenting.
Prosecutors based part of their case on a map of the site where 34-year-old Nancy Cooper's body was found July 14, 2008. The image appeared on her husband's computer three days before she disappeared. They also raised questions based on examinations of the couple's computers and phones.
The prosecution raised the possibility that the Cisco-certified voice-over-Internet specialist arranged a fake phone call to his cellphone to try to prove Ms. Cooper was still alive when prosecutors contend she was dead.
The Coopers were newlyweds when they moved to Cary from Alberta so that Mr. Cooper could take a job at a high-tech firm. The couple had two daughters while living in North Carolina. Seven-year-old Bella and 4-year-old Katie Cooper have been living in Canada with Ms. Cooper's relatives since shortly after their mother disappeared.
Ms. Cooper's sister, Krista Lister, said Thursday that the girls are doing well.
"They want me home for Mother's Day," she said.