FALL RIVER ― A jury found 40-year-old Nelson Coelho guilty of first-degree felony murder in the 2021 shooting of convenience store owner Lal Kishor Mahaseth on Tuesday.

The jury also found him guilty of two counts of armed robbery and possessing a firearm without a license in the fatal shooting of the Fall River convenience store owner.

He was sentenced to life without parole.

Mahaseth was killed by a single bullet to the chest on Oct. 18, 2021, when he attempted to fend off Coelho, who was disguised in black clothing from head to toe, during a robbery attempt by throwing a desk chair over the store’s counter. Mahaseth’s body was found by a customer more than an hour after the shooting.

A witness testified that Coelho, a homeless crack cocaine addict, was on a drug-fueled binge when he robbed the 7 Days Food Mart on Durfee Street on Oct. 17, 2021, where he made off with over $1,200, and then cased Mahaseth’s store on Rock Street before attempting to rob him and ultimately shooting the shop owner.

Mahaseth’s three adult children, who attended have attended the trial every day, turned away from a large screen where prosecutors replayed the graphic video images of the shooting death of their father during closing arguments.

Coelho has been in custody since he was arrested a week after the murder.

Defense: Coelho was ‘the fall guy,’ says someone else committed murder

The jury heard nearly four days of testimony before both sides rested on Friday afternoon, May 3.

They began deliberations around noon on Monday, May 6. Later in the day and before the court broke for the day, the jury sent two questions to Judge Raffi Yessayan, requesting clarification of the difference between intent to commit murder and pre-meditation; and the difference between convicting a reasonable person and someone under the influence. The questions indicate the jury may have been deliberating between first-degree murder and second-degree murder.

Throughout the trial, defense attorney Dana Sargent raised issues of reasonable doubt, including the theory that another man may have committed the crimes: Samuel “Junior” Lozano, who pleaded guilty as the getaway driver in the 7 Days Food Mart robbery. During testimony, it was revealed that he had supplied the gun to Coelho.

‘Be his alibi’: Witness describes drug binge before 2021 convenience store killing

Lozano was imprisoned for the crime but has since been released. He was not called by prosecutors as a witness at trial.

Sargent reminded the jury in his closing argument that Lozano had a son dispose of the weapon, which was never recovered by police.

Lozano lived in a squalid multi-family residence at 251 Pine St. with his wife and five children, and where Coelho was squatting in a hallway on the second floor.

Lozano’s wife, Alyssa Imhoff, testified, as did Lozano’s downstairs neighbor, Mary Jo Duncan. Sargent said the women were in fear of Lozano and trying to protect him, calling Coelho “the fall guy.”

Duncan testified that she would have sex for money and give it to Lozano, who would then supply her with drugs.

She also testified that she got rid of a pair of Nike athletic shoes for Lozano in the woods off Wilson Road — the same pair seen being worn by Coelho in surveillance cameras earlier in the day of the murder at another convenience store, then again in video that captured Mahaseth’s killing, worn by the disguised suspect.

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Sargent noted in closing that, when the police recovered the pair of athletic shoes, the laces were missing.

“We heard all this talk of handler DNA. What do you handle on your damn shoes? You handle the laces. Where are the damn laces?” said Sargent, adding there was no physical evidence to prosecute Coelho.

Prosecutors: Robbery method, tattoos, testimony point to Coelho as killer

But Assistant District Attorney Patrick Driscoll alleged the evidence showed that the same person who robbed the 7 Days convenience store, by aiming a gun at the chest of a clerk, also robbed Mahaseth.

“The next night, a few blocks up from there at 201 Rock St. at the Stop N Save convenience store, the evidence proves to you that Lal Mahaseth was in his store, tending to his business when an armed man came in, pointed a gun at him, during a botched robbery,” said Driscoll, saying Coelho committed both sets of crimes.

What to know: Man charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Fall River convenience store owner

“Different days, different locations, same man, same method of operation,” Driscoll said. “Watch the video of these two crimes.”

Driscoll said the first robbery went without any problems and Coelho was “flush with money.” Bristol County District Attorney’s star witness, Meredith Silvia, testified that before the robbery Coelho had altered his hand tattoos with a marker or a pen to disguise them.

On the following night’s robbery, things started going wrong quickly, said Driscoll.

Silvia testified that she had shared crack cocaine with Coelho and Lozano, and had been having sexual relations with Coelho.

Some of the most damning evidence presented by Driscoll and co-prosecutor Dennis Collins were the tattoos on Coelho’s hands and forearms, which were captured on the video surveillance cameras inside Mahaseth’s store.

The photos capture a tattoo on Coelho’s left hand, holding the handgun, that depict five dots on his wrist and a tattoo on his right hand with the word “Nelly.” The tattoo was visible when Coelho went behind Mahaseth’s counter to retrieve the ammunition clip, which popped out of his gun.

Driscoll reiterated that Silvia testified that when she drove Coelho back to Pine Street after the murder, he told her, “They know about my tattoo, and it wasn’t covered up.”

Coelho was also caught by surprise when Mahaseth fought back, grabbing a chair and flinging it over the counter. Coelho responded with a single shot, Driscoll said.

Silvia also testified that after the murder, Coelho had admitted to being involved in the convenience store shooting and said the gun discharged accidently.

“He asked me to be his alibi,” testified Silvia.

During trial, prosecutors presented a police interview with Coelho, who attempted to use Silvia as his alibi, saying he was at her mother’s home staying in the basement on the night of the shooting.

Coelho did not testify at his trial, and the defense did not present any witnesses.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River convenience store shooter found guilty of murder