It took a Warren County jury less than 35 minutes of deliberation to find Joseph Patton guilt of first-degree murder in the brutal axe murder of his uncle, Alfred Patton.

District Attorney Ricky Smith asked Circuit Court Judge M. James Chaney Jr. to sentence Patton as a habitual offender because of prior convictions for burglary of a dwelling and armed robbery.

Chaney granted that request, and sentenced Patton to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Mississippi’s first-degree murder statute does not allow for parole, and neither are those deemed to be habitual offenders allowed parole, Smith said after court proceedings had ended Friday morning.

Alfred Patton, 63, was found dead in his home on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015, by a neighbor. He was sprawled on a sofa with almost the entire head of an axe buried in this throat, his left hand touching the small part of the axe head that was protruding from his neck. Experts testified his body was in an advance state of decomposition and that Alfred Patton had been dead for at least several days by the time his body was discovered.

Joseph Patton, 36, had been living with Alfred Patton since early August, but the relationship between the two was contentious, said his neighbors and close friends, William “Eddie” Thigpen and his girlfriend, Gabrielle Phillips.

Prosecutors were able to argue successfully that Joseph Patton murdered his uncle Alfred Patton in order to collect life insurance benefits from a policy Joseph Patton purchased, claiming to be Alfred, and listing himself as beneficiary.

Joseph Patton said his uncle threw him out of the home on Thursday, Sept. 17, and that he didn’t return after that day.

However, Smith and Warren County Assistant District Attorney Marcie T. Southerland presented what seemed to be a mountain of circumstantial evidence to the contrary.

Neighbor Phillips testified she saw Joseph Patton return to the home on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, and again on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015.

And, prosecutors found a bottle of Family Dollar brand bleach, including the receipt from its purchase on Friday, Sept. 18, underneath it on the front deck of Alfred Patton’s home. Warren County Sheriff’s investigators were able to uncover video evidence of Patton purchasing that bottle of bleach on that date. Friday, Sept. 18, 2015, is the day prosecutors say Joseph Patton killed his uncle.

When investigators located and detained Joseph Patten, he gave his address at 3133 Washington St., which was the same address used by the caller when purchasing the $20,000 Met Life insurance policy on Alfred Patton.

After searching Patton’s vehicle, investigators recovered the cell phone used to make the calls when the life insurance policy was purchased. That same cell phone was used on Friday, Sept. 18, by the caller to call Met Life to double-check that the life insurance policy was indeed in effect.

A Green Dot prepaid Visa card was found in a pair of shorts in a spare bedroom at Alfred Patton’s house, which was used to purchase that policy. The Visa card was also used by Joseph Patton to purchase on Sept. 16, 2015, the axe that was found protruding from Albert Patton’s neck when his body was discovered.

Prosecutors uncovered video evidence of Joseph Patton shopping for and purchasing the axe at Home Depot in Vicksburg.

Also in Joseph Patton’s car was a black notebook that included a shopping list: “Clorox, garbage bags, Benedryl, blankets and towels.”

At Alfred Patton’s home, investigators found an envelope with Joseph Patton’s name on it that contained a white power substance identified by forensics experts to be diphenhydramine, the main ingredient in Benedryl.

The defense presented only one witness — Joseph Patton — on Thursday afternoon before resting its case.

Southerland told the jury Friday morning during closing arguments,

“Circumstantial evidence is evidence and when you have enough of it, it creates a guilty verdict,” Smith said in his closing argument.

After the verdict, Smith praised the Warren County Sheriff’s Office and its deputies and investigators.

“I appreciate the investigation the Warren County Sheriff’s Office did. The investigators from the sheriff’s office compiled lots of evidence quickly, and this verdict is evidence of their hard work,” he said.

Patton’s defense attorney Jerry Campbell said, “I feel terrible for the family of Alfred Patton. Alfred Patton was a good man. I feel sorry for his friends, and his family have also lost a relative in Joseph Patton, who will spend the rest of his life in prison.”