In a 2001 sex assault case, Brian Mlyniec, above, got a 13-year suspended sentence.

Journal / Bob Breidenbach

WARWICK –– A Superior Court jury convicted Brian Mlyniec, 45, of first-degree murder in the 2006 death of Kelly Ann Andersen yesterday. The West Warwick man was also found guilty of committing aggravated battery or “seriously disfiguring” Andersen while she was still alive.

As the verdict was announced, Andersen’s family members gasped and sobbed loudly, their eyes red and tears streaming down their faces.

But Mlyniec appeared calm, with his head down, occasionally glancing at the jurors and shaking his head.

“We’ve waited a long time for this –– justice for Kelly,” said Dianne L. Leddy, Andersen’s sister, outside the courtroom.

Leddy lauded the prosecutors, Thomas H. O’Brien and John Corrigan, and West Warwick Detective George Winman for bringing Andersen’s murderer to justice.

“The prosecution did an incredible job,” Leddy said. “We couldn’t be happier with the verdict.”

“We wouldn’t want [Mlyniec] to do this to another woman,” added Mary Beth Nordstrom, another sister.

No one could doubt the family’s elation as they stepped out of Courtroom 4E yesterday. Andersen’s daughter, Mary Ellen, couldn’t stop smiling. Neither could her 11-month-old daughter, Savanya Ranglin –– the granddaughter Andersen would never see.

The jury began deliberations Wednesday morning and reached its verdict around noon yesterday.

Andersen had turned 41 just a week before she ran into Mlyniec at Kennedy Plaza on the evening of June 22, 2006. She had known him for a few months, having once briefly stayed at his house for more than a week.

Andersen, a recovering heroin addict, told Mlyniec she was going to join a one-year residential treatment program in a few days. Mlyniec testified that the two drank alcohol and later rode the bus to his home at 95 Harris Ave.

There, Mlyniec assaulted, beat and strangled Andersen to death. Her body was found on his living-room floor the next day. She had suffered injuries to her head, face, mouth, neck, arms, wrists, back, inner thighs, knees, calves and ankles.

A state medical examiner testified last week that hemorrhages in the “strap” muscles and a fractured hyoid bone in Andersen’s neck showed that she had been strangled.

In a news release, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said, “As the jury unanimously agreed, this defendant is a demented sexual predator who, in his zeal for gratification, took advantage of a helpless woman and utterly brutalized her before he strangled her to death.”

Since the trial began last Monday jurors saw numerous graphic pictures of Andersen’s body taken during the autopsy and Mlyniec’s two videotaped interviews with West Warwick police detectives. They listened to testimony from police officials, medical and forensic experts and friends and acquaintances of both Mlyniec and Andersen.

A woman sexually assaulted by Mlyniec in 2001 testified that he had forced pills and vodka down her throat, bound her wrists and ankles and assaulted her while she had drifted in and out of consciousness. Mlyniec was given a 13-year suspended sentence with probation for second-degree sexual assault. The state is still prosecuting him for violating the terms of his probation.

Earlier this week, Mlyniec took the witness stand, testifying that Andersen asked him to choke her during what he said was consensual sexual activity. He said she seemed “groggy” and that he was concerned about her health. But he didn’t call 911 because Andersen told him not to, he said.

“I thought it was an [overdose] the whole time,” he yelled at one point during the trial. “I never intended, meant … to hurt Kelly Andersen. … I swear on my life.”

Judge Edwin J. Gale will consider life without parole when Mlyniec is sentenced on Sept. 4.

Before the jurors were dismissed yesterday, Gale thanked them for their patience throughout the trial, which he said was one of the “most difficult” of his career.

njayakri@projo.com