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Last updated on Friday, March 11, 2016
(INDIANAPOLIS) - It took a jury just about four and a half hours to find William Gholston guilty of murdering 15-year-old Ben Davis student Dominique Allen.
Gholston was convicted for the brutal murder that took place in August 2014.
Dominique Allen disappeared from her family's home on August 31, 2014. Later in the day her burned body was found in the backyard of a home on the near west side. Allen had been strangled and her feet and hands bound with a wire.
The teen's death sparked rallies in support of the victim, but the case went unsolved for more than 2 months.
In November 2014, tests done at the Indianapolis Marion County forensics lab found DNA belonging to William Gholston on the victim's body.
In court a DNA expert told the jury Gholston's DNA was discovered on Allen's hand and sandal.
The defense argued that it's impossible to know how the DNA got on the victim. Gholston's DNA was not found on the cable used to tie Allen up.
Gholston lived just a block away from the crime scene at the time of the murder, but he claimed he moved away just weeks earlier.
Gholston has a lengthy criminal history of arrests, and, in fact, the he was found not guilty of a different murder in 2004. Gholston still denies he had any involvement in Allen's death.
Allen's family was very emotional following the guilty verdict. "It's a sigh of relief that we feel because now we know that justice, you know we got another violent person off the streets."
Allen's family also told other families seeking justice to never give up.
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