Olathe ? An Overland Park woman was convicted Thursday of beating her husband to death as he slept, then trying to make it appear that someone else had committed the crime.

A Johnson County jury deliberated 4 1/2 hours over two days before finding Tyler Block Patton guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Edward Patton II. Patton faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

According to testimony at the trial, she was the last person to see Edward Patton alive, and called police to the couple’s Overland Park house Jan. 16, 2001, more than a day after she said she last saw him.

Messages she left that day on his telephone answering machine were part of her plan to deflect suspicion, Rick Guinn, an assistant district attorney, told jurors Wednesday during closing arguments.

Guinn said Tyler Patton had “closed the emotional curtain” on the relationship with her husband after a Jan. 2 argument that Edward Patton tape recorded. The tape captured her disgust and anger at her husband and his inability to provide her with a more comfortable lifestyle, Guinn contended.

Much of the defense evidence at trial involved drug use by Edward Patton. Guinn said Tyler Patton was trying to mislead police with tales of her husband’s association with “scuzzball” drug users.