A just-convicted murderer swore epithets at his victim's family and shouted out gang invocations Thursday after a Sacramento jury found him guilty in a 2005 drive-by shooting death of a man who had just bought his wife a pair of boots for Christmas.

"It's the mob – Trigga Mob," Tommie Keith Hall bellowed, just before sheriff's deputies chained him hand and foot on his way out of Sacramento Superior Court.

The jury returned the second-degree murder conviction against Hall, 23, and his co-defendant, Deontae Sultan Stirgus, 22, in the Dec. 23, 2005, north-side shooting death of Donikos Kentrell Jones, 23.

Hall's outburst drew an angry response from a young man seated with Jones' family and friends, and the two shouted slurs at each other across the courtroom.

Jones' wife as well as the prosecutor in the case described the slain man as an innocent victim of Sacramento gang violence.

"He was a young man who was just starting his career, just starting his life, just getting going, and it was unfortunately cut short," Deputy District Attorney Leslie Monahan said in an interview after the verdict was announced.

Jones' wife, Adeesha Jones, said her late husband worked as a plumber and wanted to become a firefighter. She said he earned the money that helped put her through the University of California, Davis. She said she graduated six months after he was killed.

"He was a very loving, caring uncle, son and husband," she said. "He was a hardworking guy who put his wife through college – he worked while I went to school. We were planning on having kids after my second year of medical school."

Jones said she plans to begin studying to be a doctor next year in the Dominican Republic. Jones said her husband had just returned from the Bay Area after buying her a pair of knee-high boots as a present when he was killed two days before Christmas.

"He was my everything," Jones said. "I'm just glad justice has been served."

Court records showed no criminal filings against Jones, a 2000 graduate of Grant High School. The records showed prior felony convictions on Hall for drug possession, battery and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. Stirgus had misdemeanor convictions for drugs and battery. Both were on probation when Jones was fatally shot.

According to court papers and testimony in the case, Stirgus and Hall had driven to the 1300 block of Longshore Court to buy some Ecstasy – "thizzles" as they called the psychedelic drug – when they came across some other young men who claimed the two had come into gang turf the locals identified as "the Dark Side."

An argument ensued, and one of the men who claimed Longshore Court as his set's territory fired a gun into the air, which prompted Stirgus and Hall to take off. One witness told police that Stirgus said, "We'll be back and it's curtains for anyone who is outside," according to court documents.

At 8:57 p.m., they came back and fired on the house where Jones was. Witnesses said Jones had gone outside to play basketball with some kids in the street when he was killed.

Authorities still are not sure if they got the actual shooter in Jones' slaying. A third person was in the car, and investigators have not been able to conclusively establish who pulled the trigger.

Testimony about Stirgus' phone conversation with his brother telling him to get rid of the car because it contained incriminating gunshot residue served as key evidence leading to the conviction.

Hall's father declined to comment on the verdict. Stirgus' lawyer, Russell W. Miller, said "the jury was left with a tough job" and that the verdict failed to resolve many "unanswered questions."

Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan set sentencing for Dec. 7.

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.