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Astoria Lawyer Convicted of Murdering Financial Analyst Girlfriend

 Jason Bohn at Queens Supreme Court on July 23rd, 2012.
Jason Bohn at Queens Supreme Court on July 23rd, 2012.
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DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

ASTORIA — An Ivy League-educated lawyer who prosecutors said strangled and brutally beat his financial executive girlfriend to death in their Astoria apartment was found guilty of murder on Wednesday, officials said.

Jason Bohn, 35, was convicted of first-degree murder in the brutal slaying of 27-year-old Danielle Thomas, a financial analyst for Weight Watchers who was found dead in the bathtub of the couple's apartment in 2012, according to the Queens District Attorney.

"The victim was a young woman who fought for her life until she was overcome by the defendant," DA Richard Brown said in a statement. "He has justly been held accountable for his actions and it is likely he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

The guilty verdict comes after seven weeks of trial, where the jury heard evidence that included a cell phone recording — captured, prosecutors believe, when Thomas's phone accidentally dialed a friend's number — where the victim can be heard "begging Bohn for her life as he strangles her," according to the DA's office.

Police discovered Thomas's body on June 26, 2012, in a bathtub, covered in bruises and lacerations and surrounded by bags of ice, the DA's office said. She died from blunt force trauma to the neck and torso.

Bohn's defense had argued the Columbia University graduate's actions were caused by mental illness, and that he suffered from "intermittent explosive disorder" brought on by childhood trauma, according to the New York Post.

"I understand, of course, that Jason committed a homicide and he should be punished," defense attorney Todd Greenberg told DNAinfo by phone on Wednesday. "But I believe the jury should have considered the mental illness and extreme mental disturbance that caused him to act this way."

In the weeks before her death, Thomas had reported Bohn for an assault that happened a month earlier and told police he'd been sending her threatening emails and text messages, according to the DA's office.

She was issued an order of protection, and Bohn was arrested and charged with assault and aggravated harassment, charges that were pending at the time of Thomas's death.

Her friends told DNAinfo in 2012 that the Kentucky native had met Bohn while they were both at school at the University of Florida, where he was studying for a law degree and she was pursing her MBA.

"Danielle was just an amazing person," one friend told DNAinfo at the time. "She was one of the nicest and kindest people I ever met."

Bohn is scheduled for sentencing April 2, and faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Queens DA.