Michael Allan Jacobs tried to pin the shooting of Tamworth police officer David Rixon on drug dealer and convicted killer Terry Price for good reason.

"He nominated that person because he was a likely candidate to give credence to the story," Crown prosecutor Pat Barrett said. "He wasn't to know that Terry Price was at home in bed with his girlfriend at the time."

A jury didn't buy Jacobs' defence that Mr Price was the man who pulled the trigger on that grey morning on March 2, 2012, taking less than an hour on Monday to find him guilty of murdering the 40-year-old highway patrol officer and father of six.

Jacobs, who kept the calm and straight-faced demeanour he had shown throughout the trial as the verdict was read out, now faces life in jail for the murder of an on-duty police officer.