Judge Meredith Charbula delivered the verdict Thursday. McCray’s relatives cried in the courtroom as the ruling was read, according to a family member who attended.

McCray was 17 when an intruder broke into the Jacksonville apartment she shared with a roommate in 1985. The two were restrained; McCray was abducted, sexually assaulted and stabbed. Her body was later found beside a road.

The case went unsolved for years. In 2019, McCray’s family asked the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit and Project Cold Case to take another look at the evidence. DNA evidence linked Austin to the crime in 2021, leading to his arrest. He was already serving life sentences in another state for unrelated crimes.

Joey Bray, McCray’s cousin, said the family was relieved that someone would be held accountable. He described the verdict as the result of decades of waiting and said he wanted to celebrate when the judge announced the first guilty finding.

Assistant State Attorney Lauren Anderson credited the family’s persistence and urged people with unresolved cases in their families to press investigators to review evidence that may be suitable for new testing or renewed investigation.

An attorney for McCray’s surviving roommate said the verdict brought closure after more than 40 years of living with unanswered questions, and thanked the detectives and attorneys who continued pursuing the case.

Austin is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 at 10 a.m.