Sailor convicted of fatally stabbing woman pregnant with twins after thinking he was the father

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It only took the jury one hour and 45 minutes to find Marcus Murphy guilty on Wednesday. Murphy's defense team plans to file an appeal, but for now, he was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.

"I'm about as happy as any mother can get," Petricia Buffalo, victim Ebony Harris' mother, said. "It was something senseless."

According to Murphy's charging documents, Harris was found dead in her Northborough Drive apartment on Feb. 24, 2015.

Detectives found Murphy had flown to Houston from Virginia the day Harris was killed and flew back two hours later. His phone pinged at her apartment.

Harris, who was already a mother to two boys, had been stabbed in the back and chest. The state says Murphy's DNA was found underneath her fingernails, allegedly from scratching and clawing at him when she was being attacked.

"Unfortunately, this person was known to me and revered like one of my children," Buffalo said. "That's another loss for me and for his mother as well."

Prosecutors were confident he did it.

"We knew this day would come and we're just so thankful that the jury listened to the evidence, considered it, and ultimately rendered the right verdict," Samantha Knecht, a prosecutor in the trial, said.

The defense said the DNA may have come from the last time they were intimate months prior, but the jury didn't buy that. The defense said Harris had several partners when she got pregnant, and she was simply wishing Murphy was the father.

It came out during the trial that Murphy indeed did not father the twins, although he was led to believe he did.

"I believe that Marcus Murphy believed that Ebony was pregnant by him, and I believe he felt like he was going to lose a lot if she were able to have those twins, and he had to stop it. He took every effort. He flew down to Houston and he killed her so she would not have those twins, and he wouldn't have to deal with the consequence of his actions," Knecht said.

Murphy was Harris' mother's neighbor in Virginia and hooked up with Ebony when she came up there to see her mom and drop off one of her boys in fall 2014. Buffalo said during victim impact statements that she not only lost a child, but she also lost her best friend, referring to Murphy. Apparently, they were very close.

"My heart is bleeding now for his mother because she's losing her child because he's losing his normal capacity in his lifestyle as he would have had it. It's not a win-win, but I'm just going to be honest. I'm happy for the verdict, " Buffalo said.

We asked about Harris' living children. One son turned 18 and is now an adult. The other is with his father. Eyewitness News will keep you posted on any appeals that come from this trial.