A jury has found Jose E. Ramos guilty of the Oct. 10, 2008, murder of Tynel Hardwick after just a few hours of deliberation in Superior Court in Norwich.

Ramos, 32, faces up to 60 years in prison when Judge Arthur C. Hadden sentences him on April 29.

The jury of eight men and four women started deliberating Thursday afternoon and asked to review testimony of key witnesses before returning the verdict at about 12:30 p.m. Friday.

Hardwick's mother, Sheila Harris, who could not listen to most of the testimony at the trial because she found it too graphic, shed tears of joy as she thanked prosecutors Lawrence J. Tytla and Thomas M. DeLillo and Victim Advocate Beth Ann Hess. 

Harris had high praise, also, for the detectives in the New London County Cold Case Task Force who had reopened the case and arrested Ramos in 2012 in Queens, N.Y.

She said the detectives were kind and patient when they came to her house in East Hartford to discuss the case.

"I got justice, finally," Harris said. "I can't wait until my day comes for sentencing."

Harris' cousin, Darlene Holloway, said she was relieved and thankful to God for the guilty verdict.

"You never know what's in people's minds, if they're going to see the same thing you see."

Hardwick was 29 when he was fatally shot in the head as he stood outside Rumors Bar & Grill on Boswell Avenue smoking a cigarette. He had a young daughter.

Testimony at the trial indicated that after a small tiff inside the bar, Ramos left and retrieved a rifle he kept at his sister's home in Norwich. He laid in wait in a grassy lot 143 feet from the front door of the bar and killed Ramos with a single gunshot to the head.

"I don't even think Ty knew that guy," said Chad Wilson, the best friend of the victim. "I don't know what (Ramos) was thinking. He probably wasn't thinking at  all."

Arrested four years after the shooting, Ramos confessed to the crime and provided a sworn, written statement to police. At the trial, the jury had watched a video recording of the interview.

Ramos also wrote a letter of apology to the victim's mother while sitting in the interrogation room at Norwich Police headquarters, but Harris said she did not receive the letter, nor would she want it.

Ramos' attorney Bruce B. McIntyre had revealed during the trial that Ramos suffered from a number of mental health issues.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN