QUEBEC CITY -

Jacques Delisle, believed to be the first Canadian judge to ever stand trial for murder, was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his invalid wife.

The eight-man, four-woman jury reached the decision on its third day of deliberations Thursday.

Delisle, 77, said his wife was already dead when he walked into the condo they shared in Quebec City on Nov. 12, 2009.

She lay on a sofa, a .22-calibre pistol at her side and a bullet wound in her head. He called 911, telling the operator that his wife had committed suicide.

Delisle's wife, Marie-Nicole Rainville, was paralyzed on her right side by a stroke two years earlier and had just undergone therapy for a hip fracture that summer.

Delisle wept during testimony at his trial about his wife's physical challenges, including the loss of the ability to speak foreign languages, play bridge and do puzzles because of her brain damage.

Police accepted Delisle's explanation for his wife's demise at first and the death was ruled a suicide. But further investigation led to charges of first-degree murder against the retired Quebec Court of Appeal justice.

The Crown argued during Delisle's month-long trial that he killed his 71-year-old spouse because he wanted to avoid a costly divorce and wanted to move in with his former secretary, with whom he had been having an affair.

Johanne Plamondon, the former secretary, testified she was ready to move in with Delisle a few days before he was arrested for Rainville's murder in 2010.

Plamondon, 57, had started working for Delisle as a legal secretary in 1983 when he was named to Quebec Superior Court and followed him when he was appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal in 1992.

While she and the judge were friends at first, Plamondon testified their feelings evolved in the months before Rainville's stroke in April 2007.

Another area of contention was a black smudge on Rainville's left hand from gunshot residue -- in a bizarre spot, outside the palm.

The Crown said that happened as she tried to defend herself from the fatal bullet. The defence insisted it came from her awkward grip on the gun as she took her life.

Rainville's health had been deteriorating and, in the summer of 2009, she fractured her hip. She was in the hospital until two weeks before her death.

Rainville's sister, Pauline, said Marie-Nicole had expressed suicidal thoughts to her in correspondence in the months after her stroke.

Pauline Rainville also said her sister feared being a burden on her family after her broken hip because of her limited mobility.

She had actually wanted to go into a nursing home instead of returning to her condo.

Pauline Rainville also said she didn't approve of the care provided by Delisle, and said she didn't think she was ready to be discharged from the hospital after her hip therapy because she was weak and thin.

Pauline Rainville said she had limited contact with her sister because she didn't like being around Delisle, whom she found aloof.

Marie-Josee Tremblay, who cared for Rainville in the hospital, said she found her combative and sometimes sad and tired but never depressed.