The silence of a packed courtroom was shattered by the ratcheting of handcuffs onto the wrists of three defendants and the sound of one young woman weeping inconsolably.



The Craig Rideout murder trial ended shortly after noon Tuesday with guilty verdicts for three of his family members, convicted for their roles in his murder and the botched attempt to cover up their crime.



Laura Rideout, the victim's estranged wife, and their son Colin were both convicted of second-degree murder in the strangulation and beating death that occurred last July. Laura Rideout was also found guilty of one count of second-degree burglary and one count of tampering with evidence.

Jurors acquitted Alexander Rideout and Paul Tucci of murder. Alexander Rideout, like his brother Colin, was convicted of two counts of tampering with crime scene evidence for cleaning up the crime scene in their father’s Penfield home, and for attempting to discard items at Devil’s Bathtub in Mendon Ponds Park.

Tucci was found not guilty of all charges he had faced.

COMPLETE RIDEOUT VERDICT COVERAGE:

Andreatta: Only some Rideouts deserve sympathy

What’s next for the Rideouts as they enter jail

Timeline of the Craig Rideout murder case

Deputies took all three Rideouts into custody after the verdicts were announced. Their sentencing is scheduled to take place Sept. 1.

Prosecutors said that a contentious divorce and ongoing custody battle were the motivating factors, but friends and family members struggled to make sense of the outburst of violence that shattered two families.

"I'm very pleased that we have a verdict and that there has been some justice for my brother, " said Robbyn Drew outside of court. "We'll never get him back, but we have some answers."

The jury concluded that Craig Rideout was killed by members of his own family, which made the verdicts especially tragic.

"Of course he meant a lot to me," said the victim's mother, Ness Rideout. "I'm pleased to have justice for him (Craig), but as a grandmother I do have mixed emotions."

The outrageous circumstances of this case generated intense interest both here in Rochester and elsewhere: that a mother would conspire with her sons to kill their father.



"This was definitely one of the most heinous cases I’ve seen in my more than 30 years in law enforcement," said Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn, whose office led the investigation. "To see someone so horrendously murder their own flesh and blood is unbelievable."

He noted that the defendants didn’t show much emotion throughout the trial, but that lack of emotion “says something about the evil in this case.”

State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moran praised the jury for their hard work throughout the trial. He called it a horrific, difficult job.

"I’ve been doing this a long time and you’re probably the best jury I’ve worked with," he said. “I know you worked very hard. I am very, very thankful that you are our jury.”

Second Assistant District Attorney Timothy Prosperi presented the state's case, which took almost four weeks and included more than 700 pieces of evidence.



"I think it was a fair trial with all four defendants and the jury saw the evidence in one way," Prosperi said. "Whether we disagree with it or not, they did a careful job. They did an excellent job."



The decision to try all four defendants together is likely to be the basis of appeals for those convicted.



"It was extraordinarily difficult trying all the defendants together," said Michael DiPrima, one of the attorneys for Laura Rideout. "The burden that placed on our client being the mother certainly made it much more difficult than if the parties were unrelated."

Matthew Parrinello, who represented Colin Rideout, acknowledged that some of the physical evidence, including a pair of Colin's jeans that were soaked with Craig Rideout's blood, was difficult to overcome.



"(The jeans) weren’t obviously the best fact we had," he said. "But the jury took their time and went over everything. It’s hard to argue with the fact they put in the time, but you’re always disappointed with the outcome."



Bail for each of the Rideouts was revoked and they will be held in the Monroe County Jail until they are sentenced.

Tucci, the lone defendant to leave the courtroom in the same manner he entered, was flanked by deputies and did not comment. His attorney Michael Schiano said his client was relieved and happy with his own verdict but also very upset about the others’ convictions.



"You have to understand he’s been with Laura Rideout for a number of years now. He’s helped raise these kids. He’s been involved with the entire Rideout family for the last two years," Schiano said.

Jurors informed Judge Moran in late morning that they'd reached a verdict. Within minutes, the hallway outside his fourth-floor courtroom was overflowing with observers who wanted to see the outcome firsthand. More than a dozen court deputies were called in to clear a pathway so that the defendants and their attorneys could enter, followed by family members and the media. Others were blocked from going inside when the last seats inside the courtroom were filled.

Before calling the jury in, Judge Moran admonished the capacity crowd to refrain from having any emotional outbursts, and there were none as the verdicts were read. The only sound from the gallery was the anguished cries of Chelsea Kneuer, Colin Rideout's fiancée.

Emotions ran high outside the courtroom, as family members comforted each other. Attorneys were surrounded by a phalanx of reporters and television cameras as jurors were quietly hustled out of a side door.

And then, some 20 minutes after the doors to the courtroom had opened, the fourth floor of the Hall of Justice was empty.

Hours before reaching their verdict, jurors had asked to hear the testimony from Monroe County Medical Examiner Dr. Nadia Granger, who testified that the murder was the result of a violent struggle.

Her autopsy concluded that Craig Rideout suffered blows to the head that left him broken and bloodied before he was strangled to death with a homemade garrote. He was then wrapped in a tarp, doused with drain cleaner to disfigure his face and fingerprints, and dumped by a rural roadside in Yates County in the early morning hours of July 20, 2016.







Tucci and Laura Rideout were planning a move to North Carolina when Craig Rideout was strangled and badly beaten in his basement. Craig Rideout at that time had custody of two children — one 12 years old and the other 6 years old.

Laura Rideout and some of her children — she and Craig Rideout had seven — had lived with Tucci since 2014.

During a trial which lasted more than three weeks, jurors saw surveillance video that the prosecution alleged showed three of the defendants purchasing items at Walmart before the murder. Those items, including drain cleaner, tarps, bungee cords, and work gloves, were allegedly used in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Forensic experts testified that they recovered those items and others containing both DNA from the defendants and blood from the victim, linking each defendant to the murder.

That evidence included bloody clothes found at three separate locations: the basement of Craig Rideout's Penfield townhome, where prosecutors say the murder occurred; a roadside in Yates County, where the victim's body was found; and Mendon Ponds Park, where Colin and Alexander were found by sheriff's deputies allegedly trying to dispose of evidence.



Defense attorneys for each of the defendants argued that much of the evidence had been cross-contaminated as it was collected by technicians, rendering the results of the DNA tests inconclusive. They also argued that even if the jury believed the defendants had disposed of the victim's body and destroyed evidence of the crime, none of the evidence pointed to who was present when the murder was committed.



Following the verdict on Tuesday, Schiano said Tucci no longer plans to move to North Carolina. "He'll be in Rochester with his family, taking care of them."

SLAHMAN@Gannett.com

VFREILE@Gannett.com

Includes reporting by staff writers Gary Craig, Meaghan McDermott, Justin Murphy, Brian Sharp, Patti Singer and Lauren Peace.

Past coverage

More:Rideout trial: What is the jury thinking?

More:Rideout Trial: Deliberations enter fifth day

Craig Rideout trial:Defendants point to family members as likely killers

More:A garrote, bloody gloves and drain cleaner

Who killed Craig Rideout:A family's mystery

Craig Rideout case: Family, wife's lover charged with murder

More:Blood, Laura Rideout's fingerprint found in slain husband's home