Man Killed Stepdaughter's Ex Who Threatened to Release Her Nude Photos: DA

Jessie Clifford Brown (left), 42, was given 40 years in prison for the 2015 murder of John Allen Franco (inset), 24, last Friday ... this according to Law&Crime.

On May 15, 2015, deputies from the Gregg County Sheriff's Office responded to what at first looked like a car crash, as Franco's car -- with his body inside -- was discovered in a ravine. Authorities quickly determined Franco's injuries "were not consistent with a motor vehicle accident," before an autopsy ruled he died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

One of Franco's daughters, who was 2 at the time, and another women were in the car with him at the time of the incident. The woman, according to a warrant obtained by the Longview News-Journal, claimed that while they were stopped at an intersection, a man jumped out of a truck behind them and ran up to Franco with a gun. She described the three men in the vehicle as "country looking."

"When the shot was fired, Franco, who was the driver, had the vehicle in reverse," Gregg County First Assistant District Attorney Stacey Brownlee told PEOPLE. "And when he was shot, either because he was injured, and had some type of reflex or intentionally put the truck in reverse, it drove off into the ravine."

In August 2017, someone tipped off the sheriff about the three men in the other vehicle, naming Brown and two other men. One of the men then spoke with authorities, revealing what allegedly went down the night Franco was killed.

Per Brown's arrest warrant, the man said Brown "wanted to assault Franco because Franco had threatened to show nude photos of (Brown's) stepdaughter," who Franco previously dated. According to Brownlee, Franco allegedly sent a text to the stepdaughter of a nude photo, which prosecutors interpreted as a threat he was going to share them further.

The man also allegedly said they then waited for Franco's vehicle, before driving around trying to find him. Once they did, the man claimed Brown "approached Franco's driver's side window and struck the window with the gun," before he "next heard what he described as a 'loud boom.'"

Per the witness, the trio fled the area, but the returned to the scene later that evening to find it flooded with emergency vehicles. While there, a bystander told them Franco had been murdered.

Brown was arrested in October 2017 and entered a not guilty plea at the start of his trial last month.

In closing arguments, Brown's defense attorney said, "people get up here and they lie," before attempting to cast doubt that his client was the shooter. "If someone kills someone, you're going to keep the weapon?" he asked. "You're going to put it in a normal place that you would any other weapon at your house? You're going to not throw it in a lake somewhere to get right of it?"

"People get found guilty of things they didn't do all the time," the attorney added, per KLTV video.

It took the jury just two hours of deliberation to come back with a guilty verdict.