PROVIDENCE — Hamlet M. Lopez was a jilted lover. And that made him furious.

He told others that Miledis Hilario was asking for trouble by toying with his emotions. He went to her apartment one night, put a knife to her throat and repeatedly slashed the bed they used to share.

Lopez told a friend, “If I can’t have her, no one will.”

And then he finally made good on his threats.

On the night of May 20, 2007, he apparently talked his way back into the apartment that he had been told to leave for good. Once inside, he became enraged. Wielding a serrated kitchen knife and a butcher knife taken from the kitchen, he stabbed Hilario 40 times. Their struggle left the living room stained with blood and the furniture upended.

Excited, he telephoned Hilario’s sister and his son and confessed to having killed Hilario. Then he tried to commit suicide but was interrupted by the police.

Yesterday, having accepted those pieces of information as facts, a Superior Court jury convicted Lopez of first-degree murder in a case that prosecutor Daniel Guglielmo called a classic example of domestic violence. And, in a separate finding sought by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, jurors concluded that the defendant inflicted “torture” and “aggravated battery” on Hilario.

By finding there were aggravating circumstances, the jury gave Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia the option of imposing the maximum punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

When the verdict was announced, there was a quick shriek of joy from among the gathered friends and family of Hilario. On the other side of the courtroom, the defendant’s son, Hamlet M. Lopez Jr., cried and punched the wooden bench in front of him. Deputy sheriffs escorted him from the courtroom in the Licht Judicial Complex downtown.

Two and a half hours later, the jury followed up with its declaration that there were aggravating circumstances. Lopez, who had denied the murder but did not testify in his own defense, shook his head no. Sentencing will occur later.

“With this verdict coming on the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month,” Lynch said in a statement, “the tragic murder of Miledis Hilario is a powerful reminder of the prevalence of domestic violence, which is a blight on our society.”

Last night, the younger Lopez said of the verdict, “I put it all in God’s hands.”

Juana Ramos, sister of the accused, claimed that her brother was convicted in part on false evidence. Some women on the predominantly female jury cried during the presentation of the state’s case, she said, and that shows that they had decided to convict without having heard the defense.

Tuesday, as the lead prosecutor made his summation to the jury, a photo of Hilario was projected onto a screen in the courtroom. The prosecutor, Guglielmo, described Hilario, 40, the mother of three grown children, as a woman with “a caring, generous nature.”

She operated a daycare center in her three-bedroom tenement apartment at 42 Courtland St., Federal Hill, watching over 12 young children in two shifts that would last from 7 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday.

Lopez, 53, was a prominent figure in the Dominican community who hosted a Spanish-language radio talk show called People’s Time for more than three years and was a vocal advocate for causes such as public education.

He used to work as a teacher’s aide in the city schools and as a security guard at a CVS. For a time he published a free-circulation Spanish-language newspaper and ran a small newspaper distribution business. And he managed to pull together enough money to buy several pieces of investment real estate.

While working as a guard at CVS, he met Hilario and moved in with her for 1½ years. After a while, according to testimony, their relationship soured when Hilario found out that Lopez was romantically involved with another woman.

Guglielmo said they fell into a cycle typical of domestic violence: first there was an act of violence such as a shove, then Lopez’s apology and profession of love, then her forgiveness, and then another act of violence.

He branded Lopez “a controlling man” who was “stewing” over his eventual rebuff.

Two nights before the murder, Lopez got into Hilario’s apartment. He intimidated her with a knife, threatened to cut out her heart, and slashed the bedroom mattress top and bottom. Cesar Tineo, Hilario’s son, called Lopez later and warned him to stay away from his mother.

Lopez replied, according to testimony, “Your mother is playing with emotions. She will die at the hands of a man, for playing with emotions.”

On another day, Lopez had told Jose Marte, a longtime friend with whom he had become acquainted as a teenager in the Dominican Republic, “If I can’t have her, no one will.”

After the killing, he called his son in Long Island, N.Y., confessed, and said he would kill himself.

An hour or so later, the police found Lopez inside a garage with Hilario’s minivan. The front seat was reclined back, the motor was running, and the garage had begun to fill with carbon monoxide fumes.

gsmith@projo.com