Natchez — Bryant Bethley flashed a smile and gave a thumbs-up to audience members after he was found guilty of second-degree murder for the shooting death of Reginald “Chucky” Green and three counts of attempted second-degree murder Friday night in the Concordia Parish seventh District Court.

The charges stemmed from an April 3, 2010, incident in which Bethley was accused of firing shots into a parked Chevy Blazer. Green was killed and pasengers Myesha Leonard, Kevin Carter and Kenneth Leonard were unharmed.

Lisa Green, Reginald’s mother, said she felt better after the guilty verdict and did not care about Bethley’s reaction.

“As long as they got justice for my son, that’s all I care about,” she said.

“God will take care of him,” she said pointing to Bethley who stood in shackles and handcuffs in the courtroom.

All charges except obstruction of justice were dropped against former co-defendant Daniel Butler. Butler entered a plea to the obstruction of justice charge.

The dropped charges were announced in court before the jury was brought in the courtroom. Butler and his attorney Madaline Gibbs were dismissed and allowed to leave the court.

Judge Kathy Johnson told the jury once they were brought in for the trial Friday morning that they were not to draw any conclusions or make any inferences from the absence of Butler and his attorney.

During the final day of the trial, jurors heard testimony from Dr. Karen Ross, a forensic pathologist at the New Orleans Forensic Office via the video conferencing program Skype. Ross performed the autopsy of Green on April 13, 2010 and provided expert testimony during the trial as a forensic pathologist.

Ross said it was difficult to ascertain evidence from Green’s autopsy because the body had already been embalmed and wounds sutured up, but she testified the manner of death for Green was without a doubt homicide.

Reginald Butler was one of the witnesses called by Bethley’s attorney Derrick Carson.

District Attorney Brad Burget said he was pleased the outcome of the verdict.

“I think we took a very dangerous person off the street,” he said. “He committed a horrific crime in our community, and he is going to serve the rest of his natural life in the penitentiary.”

Bethley is facing up to 50 years for each count of attempted second-degree murder and life for second-degree murder.