A Schuylkill County jury took just an hour and 20 minutes Thursday to find Luis Ramos Nunez-Calderon guilty of first-degree murder in the April 29, 2014, death of his former girlfriend, Wendy Contreras-Hernandez, of Shenandoah.

"God will be the judge of you all, since you judged me unfairly," Nunez-Calderon said through an interpreter after the verdict was read and his life sentence imposed.The jury also found him guilty of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.Nunez-Calderon, 42, who had spent the morning hunched over in his chair with his head down, walked out of the courtroom between Sheriff Joseph G. Groody and a deputy, cuffed, shackled and expressionless.It was exactly one year and one day after he killed Contreras-Hernandez, 38, by choking her and cutting her throat in the bathroom of her home at 518 W. Centre St.Both killer and victim are from the Dominican Republic, and lived together for a short time in Shenandoah. Nunez-Calderon does not speak English.Nunez-Calderon had testified he was forced to cut Contreras-Hernandez by a stranger, dressed in black, wearing a ski mask and brandishing a gun, who had crept into the house.State troopers say he confessed to the killing the next day, saying he had no choice but to kill her because she was trying to get him in trouble with police.Lawyers' reactionsPublic defender Kent D. Watkins declined comment after the verdict.District Attorney Christine A. Holman, who tried the case with Senior Deputy Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Lehman, said it was Nunez-Calderon who "sank his own ship" when he created "this ludicrous defense of the masked man, the ninja. I don't know where the defendant was getting his advice. I can only assume from his jailhouse friends. But it was really some bad advice."Calderon had a good lawyer, she said.Watkins is a "seasoned, experienced lawyer. I like to go to trial with Kent. I learn something all the time. I know Kent defended him zealously, but I don't know that he took Kent's advice," Holman said.The trialTestimony began Monday before Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin. witnesses included Contreras-Hernandez' now 10-year-old daughter, Xina Canales, who testified that she found her mother's body in a pool of blood, with Xina's own pink blanket over her head, when she arrived home from school that day.Neighbors recalled seeing the couple arguing, with one neighbor saying she saw Nunez-Calderon with his hands around Contreras-Hernandez's throat and the other saying he saw him carry her into the house.According to testimony over the past three days, Nunez-Calderon admitted to two state troopers that he choked his former girlfriend, then dragged her upstairs to the bathroom and cut her throat with a kitchen knife.The troopers, Melissa Kyper and Eric Schaeffer, testified that Nunez-Calderon blamed Contreras-Hernandez for driving him to kill her."It's all her fault. If she didn't do that, I wouldn't have killed her," he repeatedly told them.The two had argued over a restraint order she said she had against him, and about her leaving the house overnight without telling him.But on Wednesday, Nunez-Calderon dropped a bombshell when he took the stand in his own defense and told a tale of a masked man, clad in black and aiming a gun, who had somehow gotten into the house and forced him at gunpoint to cut an "already half-dead" Contreras-Hernandez's throat.The man first spoke to him in English, then switched to Spanish when Nunez-Calderon said he didn't speak English, he testified.The mysterious man threatened to kill him and his family if he told anyone or didn't take the blame for the killing if arrested.After cutting her throat, Nunez-Calderon said he was afraid, and so walked to a Burger King restaurant in Shenandoah and asked two Spanish speaking men there for a ride to Hazleton.There, he wanted to take a pay-per-ride van to New York, where he was staying with his mother in the Bronx.The men, noticing blood around his fingernails and on his face, declined.Nunez-Calderon then walked across the street to a bar, where he sat for hours, drinking beer and waiting for a cab that never arrived. A bar patron finally took him to Hazleton.In New York, Nunez-Calderon went to a deli where he had worked for eight months, met with friends, ate and drank beer before going to his mother's house. There, he put his clothes in a trash can.He never, Holman and Lehman pointed out, called police, nor did he warn his family about the alleged threat from the masked man, or tell anyone that Contreras-Hernandez was dead.Nunez-Calderon explained away his lack of action by saying he was afraid and distraught.He was picked up the next day by U.S. Marshals, and spoke with troopers that night in a Manhattan court center, where he confessed after being given his Miranda rights in Spanish and speaking with the troopers through an interpreter.The troopers testified that Nunez-Calderon answered their questions without hesitation, and had never asked for a lawyer or asked any questions of his own.Nunez-Calderon testified that he was never given his Miranda rights in Spanish, and that his signature on the card had been forged.Nunez-Calderon's statements about his actions on April 29 and April 30 changed frequently, the troopers said.In court, he switched details when Holman confronted him about discrepancies in his recounting of his actions the day of the murder.Closing argumentsOn Thursday, Watkins sought to cast doubt on the accuracy of the interpreter who translated during the troopers' interview of Nunez-Calderon in New York City.She was not an official interpreter, he said.He also spoke about Latin American culture, and suggested the killing was a "crime of passion."Holman called the crime "cold-blooded," and pointed out discrepancies in Nunez-Calderon's stories.She repeated his statements to police that Contreras-Hernandez was to blame for making him kill her, and that he failed to tell anyone of herdeath.AftermathContreras-Hernandez's daughter is living with her father on Long Island.Watkins said he would have to consult with his client before deciding whether to appeal the verdicts.Jurors will have to handle living with the memories of autopsy photos, graphic testimony, and the realization that violent crime can happen anywhere.For Holman, the victory is bittersweet."I'm thrilled for the verdict, but I'm also saddened that this tragedy had to happen in Schuylkill County, in Shenandoah, to this young woman, mother of three, who apparently came to Shenandoah, enrolled her little girl in school and was trying to make a go of it," Holman said after the verdict."She just got hooked up with the wrong fellow."