MOULTRIE, Ga. — A Colquitt County jury took less than an hour  Wednesday to convict a Moultrie man in the 2015 fatal shooting of his estranged girlfriend.

Sentencing also was swift, with Superior Court Judge Brian McDaniel setting a life sentence for Jamie Jermaine Stamper, who had a long history of violence that included three previous aggravated assault convictions.

 Stamper will not be eligible for parole until he serves 30 years, according to a news release from District Attorney Bradley Shealey’s office.

The jury deliberated for about 30 minutes before returning a guilty verdict on both counts — malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime — in the death of 29-year-old Devin Devon “Dee Dee” Smith.

Stamper shot Smith multiple times with a 9 mm pistol in the early morning hours of June 21, 2015, in front of her sister’s apartment.

Stamper previously had served eight years in prison for two of the aggravated assault cases and a 2006 conviction of sale of cocaine.

Stamper pleaded guilty in November 2004 to aggravated assault in a four-count indictment that also included charges of criminal damage to property and theft by receiving stolen property involving a .45-caliber pistol and possession of a pistol without a license. That assault also involved a domestic incident.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault in the Dec. 17, 2005, shooting of two men. He was sentenced in 2006 to serve eight years in prison. He was released in October 2013.

Five months prior to the shooting Stamper was sentenced on a battery charge involving an attack on Smith in another domestic dispute. As part of his sentence he was ordered to have no contact with Smith.

According to Colquitt County Superior Court documents, police were dispatched to Smith’s residence in the early morning hours of  Dec. 14, 2014. Smith told police that Stamper became enraged when she tried to break off their relationship. While she was on the phone he began choking and hitting her in the face with his fists.

At the time of Smith’s slaying, police described her and Stamper as being involved in an “on-again, off-again” relationship over several years.

During the one day of testimony Tuesday, four residents of the Shy Manor Terrace apartments, where Smith also lived, told what they saw and heard that night. Police also told jurors that Stamper’s cell phone was found at the scene along with one of his shoes. A second shoe was found near Charlie A. Gray Junior High.

Following the shooting, Stamper hid from police for three days when a tip from the public led them to a Dunn Road address.

“The defendant was found lying in the hallway of a mobile home that had no utilities activated,” Shealey’s office said. “When the defendant was placed under arrest, he repeatedly wanted to know who turned him in.”