An eight-man four-woman jury took little more than two hours Thursday to convict Zachary Conner of robbing and killing a man who had moved to Vicksburg three months before.

“I feel justice was served and Conner is no longer a threat on the street to anyone else,” said Curtis Cage, the older brother of Christopher Cage who was 44 when he was shot and killed on last July 8 on Fayette Street. Testimony indicated Conner was angry after Cage won $240 in a dice game.

Conner, 20, was found guilty of murder, armed robbery and shooting into a home at 505 Adams St. He did not react when the verdict was read.

In Mississippi, a murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence, but Conner is scheduled to be sentenced on the other two convictions on June 24 by Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick. Conner could receive a second life sentence for the armed robbery.

Testimony in the trial that began Monday showed Conner, Cage and several others played dice while at a barbecue at 727 Adams St., an apartment building where Cage lived.

“They saw it. They heard it. They were there. They all pointed him out,” Assistant District Attorney John Bullard said of Jamaal Bell and Keon Hatchett, two witnesses who said they saw Cage shot down. Both testified they saw Conner shoot Cage as he ran up Fayette Street toward Adams Street.

“Christopher Cage was a good man. He was a working man. He happened to get lucky with dice one night, and for that he was killed,” Bullard told jurors.

Defense attorneys Pat McNamara and Jennifer P. Fortner stressed physical evidence and told jurors in closing arguments that the state had not met its burden of proof to show Conner pulled the trigger.

Of the three bullets recovered from Cage’s body, none was conclusively linked to the Glock .45 caliber police said was used in the crime.

“And we don’t know who shot it,” Fortner said, reminding jurors no fingerprints were found on the gun and that an expert had said no gunpowder residue was found on the hands of Conner, arrested 16 hours after Cage’s body was found.

The defense team also pointed out what they said were contradictions in testimony by prosecution witnesses.

After the verdict was read at the Warren County Courthouse Thursday afternoon, Curtis Cage, who lives in Santa Clara, Calif., and had sat through the trial with his two sisters, talked about his brother. He said Christopher Cage had moved to Vicksburg three months before for a job.