"It was basically good versus evil and something very evil had happened to someone very very good," Brianna Kupfer's father, Todd Kupfer, said after the guilty verdict.
Jurors took one hour to convict a homeless man on trial in the murder of a UCLA graduate student Brianna Kupfer.
Kupfer, 24, was working alone in a luxury furniture store when a man walked in in the middle of the day and stabbed her 46 times. The Jan 13, 2022 killing triggered a nationwide manhunt.
Shawn Laval Smith, 34, was found guilty of murder Tuesday and led away in handcuffs.
Prosecutors say Laval made an audio recording as he fatally stabbed Kupfer. The killer could be heard ordering Kupfer to get down on the floor.
"With her last breathing words she's just telling him, 'I can help you, I can help you, I can help you.' and he's telling her it's over [explicative]," the prosecutor said in court.
Kupfer's father, Todd Kupfer, spoke with Inside Edition after his daughter's death.
"Brianna was a champion of what we need out of our children and she was caring and loving," Todd said.
Nearly three years later, Todd and his wife, Lorie, are reacting to the guilty verdict.
"Justice will never be served because our daughter is not alive, but the DA did a wonderful job," Lorie says.
"It was basically good versus evil and something very evil had happened to someone very very good," Todd says.
At the time of his arrest, Smith had a lengthy criminal record and was free on a $1,000 bond.
The trial will move into a non-jury sanity phase set to begin on October 2. Smith faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if the judge determines he was sane at the time of the murder.
