BEAUMONT — Soft sounds of crying broke the stark silence of Judge John Stevens’ courtroom as a guilty verdict was announced in the murder trial of Wesley Joel Smith on Friday.

Seated between defense attorneys Hal Laine and Bryan Laine, Smith quietly sobbed and wiped his eyes while nearby the family of the woman Smith is accused of killing held onto each other tearfully. Smiths wife covered her face with her hand while crying, his mother staring forward.

Smith is charged in the November 2005 murder of Tonia Lynn Porras. Prosecutors believe Smith was at the scene of the crime when Smith’s friend, Corey Schuff, brutally killed Porras.

Then the six man and six woman jury handed down a 55-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Leo Porras, the victim’s father and the person who found her body, said he is very pleased with the decision of the court then offered thanks to the first responders, investigators and others involved in bringing Smith to justice.

“I think I’ll be able to sleep a little better at night,” he said.

Robin Swain, the victim’s sister, gave a victim’s impact statement, telling Smith he had a choice to make in November 2005 but he went along with Schuff. By his actions Tonia Porras was never able to see her son ride his bicycle or perform in his first play. She will not be there to see him graduate, get married or hold a grandchild.

“You are the man, along with Corey Schuff, who decided Tonia Lynn would live no more,” she said.

During the trial defense attorney Hal Laine reviewed the past three days of testimony and evidence He discounted the DNA evidence presented by prosecution witness Jane Burgett, a Texas Department of Public Safety criminologist, and three signed statements from Smith, each with a difference version of the night of the crime.

“The statement and the fact that Wesley Smith was a good friend of the killer, does that in and of itself, make him guilty?” Laine asked the jury.

Prosecutor Ramon Rodriguez ticked off issues he felt indicated guilt; Smith wiped his fingerprints off the doorknob at Porras apartment, he didn’t just leave Schuff to “face the music” when he saw the murder taking place and Smith’s DNA was found on a roll of duct tape that police recovered near the dead woman’s body.

After the verdict Laine asked the jury to give Smith the lower end of the punishment range, 5 to 10 years while Rodriguez used visual aides to ask for a higher sentence.

The prosecutor first placed a photo of the small framed, dark haired Porras on the projector for the jury to see so they “remember who we’re talking about.”

“Justice is blind, that’s how justice is shown,” he said. “A jury is the eyes of justice and I ask you to open your eyes. What is a life worth in the eyes of justice?”

Rodriguez then placed a gruesome crime scene photo on the projector showing Porras with duct tape wrapped around her eyes and her mouth.

“What is that in the eyes of justice,” he said in reference to the photo. “Justice is not only blind, but gagged.”

Porras, 28, was found in her garage apartment bedroom on Hillebrandt Acres Road by her father on Nov. 5, 2005. Her feet were bound with duct tape and an electrical cord was wrapped around her throat. She had been stabbed numerous times.

Schuff, Porras’ former boyfriend, was sentenced to life in prison in December 2007. Prosecutors believe Porras had broken off her relationship with Schuff and was planning to move away because she was afraid of him.