Southie Man Convicted Of Killing Neighborhood Woman

A Boston man was convicted Friday of killing a 67-year-old grandmother after breaking into her home to look for money he wanted to feed to his drug addiction.

Timothy Kostka, 30, was found guilty by a Suffolk Superior Court jury of first-degree murder and home invasion for the April 2012 killing of Barbara Coyne in her South Boston home. Members of Coyne's family applauded and wept when the verdict was read.

Kostka broke into Coyne's home looking for high-end fishing equipment owned by her son, prosecutors said at trial.

He was rummaging through a jewelry box when she walked in on him. He beat her during a struggle and cut her throat with a dull weapon before making off with some winning lottery tickets that he cashed for money to buy heroin, prosecutors said.

Coyne's son found his mother minutes later, still alive on the floor. She died at the hospital.

"$152 total, four bags of heroin: The value Timothy Kostka placed on Barbara Coyne's life," prosecutor Ursula Knight said.

Kostka's and Coyne's families knew each other and lived just a few blocks apart.

Investigators found Kostka's fingerprints on Coyne's jewelry boxes and his DNA was under her fingernails. Surveillance video from a nearby business captured Kostka cashing in the lottery tickets.

Kostka's lawyer said authorities homed in on his client and did not investigate any other suspects, including another man who told police that he had broken into Coyne's home.

Kostka faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole at sentencing scheduled for Wednesday.