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A Henrico County jury on Thursday convicted a man of killing his 81-year-old grandmother and recommended that he serve life in prison.

After more than two hours of deliberation, the 12-member jury found Ricardo Green, 46, guilty of the first-degree murder of Bertha Bernice Pannell. The judge accepted the jury’s recommendation of a life sentence.

She had been beaten to death with a pair of tan Timberland boots, according to the prosecution.

Green denied killing Pannell. He testified Thursday that another man did it.

“I loved my grandma,” he told the jury. “It was beyond the love of a grandmother. She was more of a mother.”

Pannell was given custody of Green when he was 12, and she again took him in recently after he was released from prison. Green is a nine-time felon with convictions including aggravated malicious wounding, grand larceny, forgery and attempting to elude. Also stemming from the murder case, he has pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, driving after being declared a habitual offender, and eluding.