The NBC program "Dateline" will feature the case of Courtney Coco on Friday.
The body of 19-year-old Coco was found on Oct. 4, 2004, in an abandoned building in Winnie, Texas, a small community south of Beaumont along Interstate 10. But it wasn't until April 2021 that David Anthony Burns was indicted and arrested in the case.
Burns, who had been dating Coco's sister at the time of her death, was found guilty in October 2022. According to testimony during the trial, Burns and Coco were seeing each other while he was dating her sister.
The Rapides Parish jury took 90 minutes to find him guilty of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
Burns was defiant in declaring his innocence after Coco's family gave victim impact statements in late November at what was to have been his sentencing. He denied killing her and told her family they wouldn't find peace because they knew he didn't do it.
"You know I would not do something like this," he said, facing the family in the courtroom's gallery. "You know I'm not hiding nothing, ain't nothing to hide."
The NBC program "Dateline" will feature the case of Courtney Coco on Friday.
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