JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Drew Peterson — the crass former Illinois police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger wife vanished in 2007 — was convicted Thursday of murdering a previous wife in a potentially precedent-setting case centered on secondhand hearsay statements.

Peterson, 58, sat stoically looking straight ahead and did not react as the judge announced jurors had found him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Her relatives gasped, then fell into each other’s arms and cried.