A Jacksonville woman who tried to convince a jury that she was having phone sex with her boyfriend as the police shot him to death during a botched robbery has been convicted of second-degree murder.

Thursday's verdict holds Shaketa Jones, 29, responsible for the May 29, 2010, Atlantic Boulevard Gate gas station armed robbery that ended in a hail of gunfire for Jessie N. Cooper, 28. She faces up to life in prison when she's sentenced in March.

Jones did not pull the trigger but she was charged with Cooper's death because she planned the robbery and served as a lookout. A jury of four men and two women came back with guilty verdicts on second-degree murder and robbery after 10 minutes of deliberations.

Jones testified for one hour and 20 minutes. She denied planning the robbery. She said the police tricked her into confessing that she'd cased the Gate station for days before the crime. She said she has three children.

Because of other robberies in the area, officers formed a task force and testified that they'd watched Jones all week. She was even observed following the store manager on his bank run.

Jones said she and Cooper were having problems and he was using cocaine. She said she went to the Gate station because a man she knew only as "Black" told her she'd find Cooper there.

Phone records showed Cooper and Jones talked for 53 minutes, including during the robbery.

Photos shown to the jury made it appear that Jones' sport-utility vehicle was parked to look at the Gate station's front door while Cooper, who was waiting outside the store in another SUV, would have needed a cue to accost the manager as he walked outside.

However, Jones said she was having phone sex with Cooper, not telling him to rob anyone. She was in a neighboring driveway with a door open in her SUV. She said she was fondling herself, despite being within view of Atlantic Boulevard traffic.

Prosecutor John Guy called Jones' story ridiculous albeit carefully crafted. The part that made the least sense, he argued to the jury, was that the phone sex would have continued as Cooper approached the store manager with a loaded .38-caliber pistol just footsteps from the front door. The manager had about $13,000 in a deposit bag.

"So that's what you're telling this jury. That during that conversation, he [Cooper] decides, 'I'll just kick it up a notch. I'll go commit a robbery,' " Guy said.

Assistant Public Defender Debra Billard argued that prosecutors could not disprove the story. She put the blame on Cooper, arguing Jones was guilty of poor judgment and poor taste in men but not murder.

"All they can do is say it is stupid," Billard said. "Who hasn't done something stupid when they are young and in love?"

Robbery detectives Clement Nieto and Michael Padgett opened fire when Cooper pointed his pistol at Nieto during his scramble to escape, prosecutors said.

The defense asked for an acquittal because Padgett, who fired the fatal shot, did not personally testify.

Guy said both officers were supported in an internal review and Padgett's story would have duplicated Nieto's.

david.hunt@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4025