Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams says the jury made the right decision to convict Daniel Messel of murdering Hannah Wilson. Police found her body in rural Brown County last year.
Adams says he wants people to remember Hannah as a hero.
"I think her final act of fighting...allowed us to secure this conviction."
"She's the hero," Adams said after the conviction. "I think her final act of fighting, of the struggle we talked about in our case, allowed us to secure this conviction, because she was able to get that cellphone to drop out onto the ground, which led to everything."
Police found Messel's cellphone partially under Hannah's body at the scene of the crime, allowing police to quickly identify Messel as a suspect. They arrested Messel within eight hours of discovering Wilson's body.
Hannah's mom and dad sat through all six days of evidence and witness testimony, including some graphic photos of Hannah's body and descriptions of how she was killed.
"I needed to be here for Hannah, because Hannah could not be here," said Robin Wilson, Hannah's mother. "She had no voice anymore, so it was important that myself and our family, Hannah's friends, were here to speak for her because an evil person took that right away from her."
Hannah's dad Jeff Wilson says the guilty conviction is an important moment for them.
"It doesn't make it go away, but it's one less thing to have to worry about," he says. "So we can get past this and move on."
A judge will determine how long Messel will spend in prison at a Sept. 22 sentencing hearing. He faces up to 85 years.