Jury convicts man of killing girlfriend

Suspect had reported her missing three years ago

Nearly four years ago, Tyrone Lamont Webb Jr. reported his girlfriend missing. This week, a jury convicted the 31-year-old of first-degree murder for shooting her twice in the head. He had been charged in 2009 after the woman's body was found by hunters in the woods in Woodlawn.

Mia Nichols, 27, was a mother of three. She had been shot and her body discarded, police said at the time, until her partially clothed skeletal remains were discovered off Dogwood Road near Ridge Road. Nichols had worked for Volunteers of America, where she was last seen on Oct. 28, 2008, nearly a year before her body was found.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office said that a jury convicted Webb of first-degree murder and two handgun violations. Prosecutors said police never found the gun, but did determine that Webb "was traveling throughout the Baltimore metro area" with the victim's cell phone after he reported her missing.

Baltimore County prosecutors tried Webb in April 2010 but jurors could not reach a decision, and a mistrial was declared. Police later determined that Webb and shot Nichols in their apartment on West Forest Park Avenue in Northwest Baltimore, and the second trial was held in the city.

Webb is scheduled to be sentenced April 16. He faces a maximum life plus 20 years in prison.