A jury convicted Dennis Cosby, 62, of murder Monday in the 2014 shooting of a roommate and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

During testimony over Cosby’s sentence, prosecutors played audio of a 911 call in which Cosby can be heard twice saying that he grabbed a gun and shot Paul Quiroga after the victim “attacked” Cosby.

The penalty for murder is a maximum of 99 years or life in prison. But the introduction of the recording prompted defense attorneys to successfully argue that the jury should also be allowed to consider the range of punishment for second-degree murder, which has a maximum of 20 years in prison, because the 911 call was evidence of “sudden passion.”

The jury spent three hours deliberating Cosby’s punishment and found that his actions did constitute “sudden passion.”

“Take into consideration that he (Cosby) has no criminal history,” said defense attorney Jennifer Peña in her closing statement. “He wasn’t out to hurt anybody that night.”

Lead prosecutor Jason Goss reminded jurors that in the police interview, Cosby said he was sorry he took a life, but not sorry he took Quiroga’s.

Cosby showed no emotion when the guilty verdict was announced in the 437th state District Court, with visiting Judge Philip Kazen presiding.

Testimony showed that Cosby shot Quiroga three times on Feb. 23, 2014, at the home they shared with two others on Altitude Drive on the West Side. Quiroga died at University Hospital.

The two fought after Quiroga threw Cosby’s bicycle into a neighbor’s yard because he did not close the gate. Cosby told police Quiroga attacked him but that he watched TV for 30 minutes before a second confrontation in which Quiroga swung a traffic cone at him, prompting him to get a gun and shoot him.

Cosby called 911 after the shooting and told dispatchers, “A man’s been shot three times …”

When a dispatcher asked Cosby how he was, he replied, “I’m banged up a little bit from when he attacked me.” When asked why he shot Quiroga, Cosby can be heard saying, “because he attacked me.”

ezavala@express-news.net

Twitter: @elizabeth2863