COEUR d'ALENE - A jury Wednesday found 29-year-old Joseph Herrera guilty of second-degree murder for the Christmas day 2011 shooting death of his girlfriend, Stefanie Comack, in St. Maries.

The Kootenai County jury's verdict was read just before 3 p.m., and Comack's family and friends in the audience briefly erupted in applause and cheers.

They were booted from the courtroom by 1st District Court Judge Fred Gibler. Comack's mother, Suzie Comack, was able to remain in the courtroom, and she quietly cried as Gibler set sentencing for Herrera for 3 p.m. Aug. 29.

Suzie Comack said she appreciated the work of Benewah County Prosecutor Doug Payne and Idaho State Police Det. Paul Berger. She also thanked those in St. Maries who supported her family through the loss of Stefanie and as the case made its way through the courts.

"This is what we wanted; this is what we needed," Suzie Comack said. "We're very, very thankful to the jurors for making the right decision."

Kaytlin Comack, 23, Stefanie's sister, said after the verdict, "I think it feels pretty awesome."

She said the verdict brings some closure to the family.

Closing arguments concluded just before 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and the jury - eight women and four men - signaled they had reached a decision by 2:30 p.m.

During closing arguments, Payne said there was no doubt Herrera shot Stefanie in the forehead in a bedroom area upstairs in his parents' St. Maries home.

"He was yelling and screaming at the scene that he shot her," Payne said.

He said Herrera acted with malice and in a way that showed a conscious disregard for human life, pulling out a handgun during an argument.

"He engaged in conduct that caused her death," he said.

Herrera has maintained that the shooting was an accident.

Payne argued Stefanie was planning to break up with Herrera. Payne directed jurors to a thread of direct messages exchanged between Stefanie and Kaytlin Comack on Christmas Eve.

"I'm starting to realize he doesn't care," Stefanie wrote in a private Facebook message to her sister.

Payne said, "This was a relationship that was in a nose dive."

He said the facts presented during the trial didn't fit Herrera's story that the shooting was accidental, and Herrera's own testimony was "unreliable" because his version of events changed.

Herrera told investigators right after the shooting that the gun had just fired unexpectedly in the bedroom, hitting Stefanie as she was crouched down near him.

During the trial, however, he testified that he had pointed the gun at his own head during an argument with Stefanie, then she pulled the gun away from his head when it fired and she was hit.

"Repeatedly, he couldn't remember (what exactly happened) at the crucial juncture" when the gun went off, Payne said.

Defense attorney James Siebe argued to the jury that the case "screams accident."

He told the jury to find Herrera guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He said Herrera was reckless in a chaotic moment.

"There's nothing in this case about a deliberate intention to kill Stefanie Comack," Siebe said.

He said Herrera believed the gun was unloaded when he pointed it at his own head, and was just trying to make a point that he would rather die than spend Christmas at Stefanie's mother's house.

Siebe told the jury they loved each other, and there was no evidence Herrera had been violent with her before this incident.

"None of her behavior here is consistent with someone who was planning to leave," Siebe said. The two had been seeing each other for about four months before the shooting.

Additionally, Siebe said Herrera stayed at the scene of the shooting and stuck to his story of the shooting being an accident.

The moment the first officer showed up at Herrera's parents' home, St. Maries Police Department Det. Bob Loe, Herrera flagged Loe down and told him the shooting was an accident.

"He didn't act like somebody who acted with malice," Siebe said.

The trial was moved to the Juvenile Justice Building in downtown Coeur d'Alene because the prosecution and defense couldn't find enough impartial jurors in Benewah County to conduct the trial in St. Maries.