The woman charged with killing 23-year-old Justin Barnett in 1995 was found guilty of capital murder Friday morning was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Tricia Abney, 42, was charged in 2015 with capital murder during the course of a robbery for the stabbing death of Barnett. A Jefferson County jury deliberated for less than a full day before finding Abney guilty of that same charge.

Jurors were instructed on the lesser charges of intentional murder and felony murder, but opted to convict her of the more serious charge.

Abney has a penalty phase Friday afternoon, where jurors voted unanimously to sentence her to life in prison without parole. For Abney to have been put to death, jurors would have had to vote in favor of the death penalty by a 10-2 vote.

According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, only five women are currently on Alabama's death row.

Barnett disappeared on the night of June 3, 1995. He and his girlfriend, Sheila Horton, had split up for the evening to go to separate parties with their friends. When Horton returned to the couple's Southside apartment around 2 a.m. the next morning, Barnett was not there. He never came home, and Horton never heard from him again.

The case went cold for 20 years, until Abney's brother Johnathan Abney came forward to Birmingham police in 2015. He told investigators he had information about a two-decades old murder case, and said his sister was involved.

Abney's trial started this week in Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro's courtroom. Testimony lasted two and a half days, before the jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon. Abney did not take the stand.

Johnathan Abney testified on the first day of the trial, where he talked about his sister and their upbringing. In 1995, he moved in with his sister and her boyfriend, Jeff Martin, in a small one-bedroom apartment on the east side of Birmingham. He said on June 3 of that year, he went to the Superbowl in Tarrant to play pool because his sister said she wanted to have some alone time with Martin. She and Martin did not pick up Johnathan Abney from the bowling alley for several hours, he said.

When the three got back to the apartment, Johnathan Abney said he was led into the bathroom and saw Barnett's legs hanging over the bathtub. Barnett's head and arms had been cut off and placed in trash bags on the bathroom floor, Johnathan Abney said.

He had met Barnett once before, when his sister had met up with Barnett in a Southside apartment to buy drugs. Johnathan Abney also saw a backpack on the couple's bed--one he recognized as belonging to Barnett, which had drugs and money that both Johnathan Abney and his sister told police they used.

Johnathan Abney said he drove Barnett's vehicle, which actually belonged to Horton, to a spot in Lakeview and left it. He then joined his sister and Martin, and the three headed to a Bibb County field. Johnathan Abney said there, his sister and Martin buried Barnett's remains and placed rocks on top of the gravesite.

During his testimony earlier this week, Johnathan Abney admitted to threatening his sister about a year before he went to police in 2015. "I said I'd make sure she spends the rest of her life in prison," Johnathan Abney said.

Police went to Mobile to interview Martin in 2015, but he refused to speak to investigators. Several days later, Martin committed suicide. Abney was arrested and charged with capital murder on July 22, 2015.

Johnathan Abney was not charged.

Police have searched the field where Johnathan Abney said Barnett's body was buried, but no remains have ever been found.

Jefferson County Deputy District Attorneys Kylie Jernigan and Neal Zarzour prosecuted the case. Emory Anthony and Wakisha Hazzard represented Abney.

Anthony said after the verdict, "We respectfully disagree but we have to accept the verdict."

"Kylie and I would like to express our thanks to the jury for their work in this case. Despite the unique challenges in prosecuting a twenty-year-old homicide, the jurors paid close attention to the evidence and determined the truth, which Tricia Abney concealed for so long. Twenty years is too long for a family to wonder, but thankfully, it was not too late for them to get justice for Justin," Zarzour said.