Found guilty early Thursday of aiding the kidnapping and murder of Troy Klug four years ago, Jamee Corean of Belle Fourche now faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life in prison.

Klug's mother, Joyce Klug, said she was "OK" with the verdict. "I feel that it was a fair verdict. I really feel sad for the families, that they have to go through all this," she said.

However, she said that she was still having a hard time knowing that so many people knew of her son's murder and that nobody did anything about it.

"It's still not over," Joyce Klug said. "I don't have the closure that I need, but some day, it will come."

Defense attorney Dave Claggett also said the case is not over for his client.

"We believe that there is a possibility that a new trial should be granted," Claggett said Thursday. Claggett maintained throughout the trial that witnesses against Corean were not credible.

He said the defense team would lay out the reasons soon in filing a renewal for an acquittal. He said if that is denied, an appeal would be filed. The defense will have 30 days after sentencing to file the requests.

Testimony in the case before 4th Circuit Judge John Bastian began Aug. 14. After closing arguments and instructions, the seven-woman, five-man jury started deliberating at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday and returned the verdict shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday.

They found Corean, 29, guilty of aiding and abetting an aggravated kidnapping and being an accessory to the murder of Troy Klug, who has been missing since July 12, 2004.

Jurors found Corean not guilty of another count charging her with aiding and abetting kidnapping.

Corean now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for accessory to murder and up to life in prison for kidnapping. No sentencing date has been set. She is being held in Meade County Jail in Sturgis.

She also faces perjury charges in Pennington County. No court date is set, according to the county state's attorney's office.

Prosecutors say Corean knew Klug, then 26, was being held captive in the garage of the Belle Fourche home she shared with then-boyfriend James Kusick. They say she did nothing to help him, then repeatedly denied to investigators that she knew anything.

"The weight of the evidence against the defendant was very strong, and the jury applied the complexities of the law to the facts and came up with an appropriate verdict," assistant attorney general Rod Oswald said Thursday.

Joyce Klug praised Oswald for his diligence in following the case, which has turned from a kidnapping case into a kidnapping and murder case despite the fact that Klug's body has not been found.

"He (Oswald) wants to find Troy, and I think one day, he will," she said.

Tory Teigen, 32, was convicted in 2005 of kidnapping and is serving a 100-year sentence. Cynthia Kindall, 44, pleaded guilty but mentally ill and received 20 years in prison. Tell Cook, 32, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony and was given a 10-month sentence. Kusick, 29, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and perjury and is serving a 20-year sentence.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or Heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com