N.C. man convicted of strangling wife to death, jury doesn't buy jogging story

(CBS/AP) RALEIGH, N.C. - A North Carolina jury found a Cary man guilty of first-degree murder Thursday in the 2008 strangulation of his wife, whom he said disappeared while out for a jog.

The jury returned the verdict against Bradley Cooper, 37, shortly before 4 p.m. after deliberating over three days. Cooper showed little emotion as the judge read the verdict in a Wake County courtroom.

Prosecutors alleged Cooper strangled his wife, Nancy, in the overnight hours following a July 11, 2008, party at a neighbor's home in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh. Witnesses testified the couple argued at the party and appeared headed for divorce.

The Cary man said his wife went for a jog on the morning of her disappearance and never returned. Her body, clad only in a jogging bra, was found at a construction site in a subdivision less than three miles from the couple's home. Cooper had been jailed since October 2008, when he was charged in the case.

In closing arguments on Tuesday, defense attorneys hammered repeatedly on what they called a lack of hard evidence linking the defendant to his wife's death.

"No blood, no bodily fluids, no fibers," attorney Robert Trenkle said.

Prosecutors based part of their case on a map of the site where 34-year-old Nancy Cooper's body was found July 14, 2008. The image appeared on her husband's computer three days before she disappeared. They also raised questions based on examinations of the couple's computers and phones.

The prosecution raised the possibility that the Cisco-certified voice-over-internet specialist arranged a fake phone call to his cell phone to try to prove Nancy Cooper was still alive when prosecutors contend she was dead.

The Coopers were newlyweds when they moved to Cary from Alberta, Canada, in 2001 for Brad Cooper to take a job at a high-tech firm in Research Triangle Park. The couple had two daughters while living in North Carolina. Bella and Katie Cooper have been living