PROVIDENCE — A Superior Court jury found a Cranston man guilty last week of shooting a West End resident to death three years ago over money he owed an associate.

After deliberating 15 hours over three days, the jury Friday convicted Tracey Barros, 28, of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the slaying of Deivy Felipe in April 2005. He was also found guilty of carrying a pistol without a license and discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, according to the attorney general’s office.

Officers found Felipe, 26, also known as David Felipe, slumped dead at the wheel of a Ford Explorer on Althea Street in what the police described as a drug deal gone bad. He had been shot five times.

Barros was arrested eight months later by officers patrolling the South Providence neighborhood after they saw him run into a Taylor Street home with a handgun stuffed in his back pocket, the police said.

The police said that as he was placed in handcuffs and his gun removed, Barros said, “It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous. I need that for protection.”

Barros told the police that Tonea “Nutt” Sims gave him the Raven Arms .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Barros said he had shot a man in a Ford Explorer whom he did not know because he had seen him with people who had killed his cousin and because he owed Sims money. Sims, 34, was shot to death earlier on the day of Barros’ arrest.

A fledgling filmmaker, Sims wrote, directed and starred in a homemade movie that captured the underbelly of Providence’s drug world.

Barros, of 7 Prospect St., Cranston, , refused to give the police a recorded statement until he was shown a photo from Sims’ autopsy, prosecutors said.

Special Assistant Attorneys General Kelly McElroy and Melissa Larsen presented 10 witnesses over the two-week trial. Barros was among three people to testify for the defense, according to the attorney general’s office.

Barros’ first trial ended in a hung jury in June.

kmulvane@projo.com