The prosecution did not present a deposition from Del Priore, who lives in a trailer park near the Kissel family's vacation home in rural Vermont, and he was never present in the courtroom. But the ruggedly handsome audio- visual technician was a force in the trial from the beginning.

Prosecutors suggested that Michael Del Priore had a hand in encouraging the murder. The defense says he was nothing more than a shoulder for her to cry on.

But, asked to react by telephone to news of the guilty verdict just moments after it was handed down, Del Priore's younger brother, Lance, was forceful. "Justice has been served," he told The Standard. "I think the verdict is justified."

In his eyes, the affair his brother carried on with Nancy Kissel was shameful and has resulted in the two brothers becoming estranged.

Earlier, Lance Del Priore, who owns the high-end AV equipment dealership his brother was working for when the affair began with Kissel, said he was shocked by the affair and the murder. "It was just wrong. I fired him because of the affair," Lance Del Priore said. "Rob Kissel was a customer of ours for years, and a very decent man."

The two brothers have not spoken since the week of the murder. After the news broke of the November 2 killing, Del Priore called his brother. "Mike, Rob's dead," he told him. "Mike replied, `All I can tell you is he beat the hell out of Nancy and her father is going to Hong Kong.' I was suspicious. I think he knew something."

As trial testimony revealed, Nancy Kissel and Michael Del Priore spoke many times while she was in Hong Kong, including a lengthy conversation after the murder, the content of which has not been revealed.

The victim's father, William Kissel, said as the jury was deliberating: "She [Nancy] did and said things that only a Michael Del Priore could have taught her."

To this day, Lance Del Priore feels guilty that he sent his troubled brother into the path of the Kissel family by dispatching him to install a high-end home-theater system in the Kissel residence.

Following news of the trial, Lance Del Priore says he and his family have been shocked at the picture painted of Robert Kissel as an abusive drug user. They knew him as a devoted father and a nice man.

As for Nancy Kissel: "I just keep thinking she made some really bad decisions," he says. One of the worst, he says, was taking up with his twice- married brother, a man with a reputation for chasing women.

When Del Priore learned about the affair, he begged his brother to break it off and tried to give him a second chance.

"He came into a Bible study I was having with two friends at my home one evening [in September 2003]," Del Priore remembers.

"Mike broke down and cried and confessed the affair that night."

Hoping it was the end of it, Lance Del Priore kept quiet, even when he knew that a private detective was looking for evidence of the affair on behalf of Robert Kissel, who had grown suspicious. "I regret that I did not say anything to anyone," he says. "It might have helped."

Instead, he later learned, the relationship continued. "Mike was wearing a US$5,000 (HK$39,000) watch he said Nancy had given him. I told him to give that watch up, but he wouldn't. It meant that much to him," Del Priore said. "Michael talked to people around town about the affair. He bragged about getting rich. He made plans to meet her. It was just wrong."

After learning his brother lied about cutting off the relationship, Del Priore fired him. His brother went off on his own, opening a small business, Amity Security and Alarm, in nearby Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Repeated calls to the firm were answered by a male voice on a machine requesting callers to leave a message. Despite leaving several messages, no one returned the calls to The Standard.

Lance Del Priore says he believes his brother has gone into hiding.

Troubled relationships have been a pattern for Michael Del Priore his whole life, according to his brother. Married twice - the last time to a girl 15 years old when he met her about 10 years ago - the 41-year-old Michael Del Priore was "looking for a big chance" when he found Nancy Kissel, his brother says.

"He was bragging about money and what he was going to get out of Nancy," his brother says.

For Lance Del Priore, who has never been to Hong Kong, the murder is something that will haunt him forever. He wants to apologize to the Kissel family, and he hopes they will forgive him.

"I just feel remorse over this whole situation," he said.

Finally, Lance Del Priore will always remember the chilling phone call he received from Robert Kissel's brother, Andrew, just after the murder.

"The phone rang and it was Andrew. All he said was: `Your brother killed my brother."'