Inglewood Man Is Guilty in Slaying : Courts: Jury convicts Brian Framstead of 1990 shooting of his former girlfriend. Sentencing is set for Jan. 3.

A 30-year-old Inglewood man has been convicted of first-degree murder for killing his former girlfriend after she ended their relationship.

Brian Framstead, 30, was convicted Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court of using a firearm in the premeditated murder of his former girlfriend, Tammy Davis. Framstead, who faces 30 years to life in prison, had driven into the desert after the killing and set himself on fire. He suffered severe burns to his face, neck and hands.

In the Santa Ana courtroom Wednesday, Davis’ mother and father wept silently as the verdict was read. Her 15-year-old brother held their hands. Framstead’s mother, two rows away, shut her eyes tightly and fought tears. As marshals led her son from the courtroom, she called: “I love you.”

The tension that has swelled between the two families boiled over as Jackie Framstead brushed by Davis’ mother, Debbie Armantrout, on her way out of the courtroom and muttered, “Bitch.” Armantrout’s friends and family circled protectively around her.

Moments later, her eyes red, Armantrout said she was satisfied with the verdict, but she will not be able to rest any easier until Jan. 3 when Framstead is scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey.

“It’s enough,” she said, referring to the murder conviction. “He has to live with what he did and look in the mirror every day.”

Armantrout said the legal system failed her 19-year-old daughter because a court order keeping Framstead away did not protect her. But this time, with the aid of 12 jurors, the system worked, she said.

Prosecutors had argued that Brian Framstead, who had confronted Davis with a gun once before, stalked and murdered her on a stranger’s doorstep in Huntington Beach on Jan. 5, 1990, because she had broken his heart. He argued that he intended only to express his despair and then kill himself in front of her, but that his gun went off accidentally.

Only one juror agreed to discuss the case after the panel was dismissed. Roger Yamashita, 30, an engineer from Yorba Linda, said the panel felt that physical evidence from the crime scene--showing the gun was fired from above, at close range, while Davis cowered, her hands cupped before her face--contradicted Framstead’s argument.

“We did not believe it was an accident,” Yamashita said.

Timothy Davis, 40, of Fullerton, Tammy’s father, said the verdict “makes me feel good,” but he added that Framstead “got off easy.”

One of the hardest things about the trial, members of Davis’ family said, was the frustration that Davis wasn’t there to tell her side of the story. Her aunt, Pam LaBossiere, 41, said it was difficult for her to listen to Framstead’s testimony, during which he portrayed his involvement with Davis as dreamy and romantic.

“It sounded like a Disney movie,” she said. “Well, now his fairy tale is over.”