Mark Rodney Jones found guilty of murdering Launceston man Bradley Wade Breward

It took the Supreme Court jury just over two hours to deliver its verdict on a man charged with murder.

Bradley Breward was murdered on New Year’s Day 2017. Picture: SUPPLIED

A FORMER bodybuilder who admitted to waterboarding a man and suffocating him with a plastic bag over a stolen car, has been found guilty of murder.

A Supreme Court jury took just over two hours to deliver a unanimous verdict for Mark Rodney Jones, 43, of West Launceston, who had maintained that he never wanted his 22-year-old victim to die from the torture he inflicted in a cramped Newnham unit on New Year’s Day 2017.

The court heard Jones had dedicated weeks to searching for Mr Breward in December 2016, after he was told Mr Breward had stolen his Nissan Patrol ute from a roadside in Prospect.

Jones later told detectives he needed $22,000 for the uninsured ute to help pay for an operation his wife needed and that its theft was a “blow” to the family before Christmas.

Jones launched a social media campaign to find information on the missing ute and offered a $5000 reward for information leading to its whereabouts and $1000 for anyone who could lead him to Mr Breward.

A police forensics specialist investigating the disappearance of Bradley Breward, at a Newnham unit in 2017.

The court heard Jones found Mr Breward at a Newnham unit, after receiving a tip-off that morning from a woman named Tina Robertson, whom Mr Breward owed about $3000.

Ms Robertson told the court she became angry with Mr Breward that morning when he made a remark to her insinuating she had slept with another man, as she left the unit where her boyfriend Cody Lee lived.

The remark prompted Ms Robertson to call Jones, who had previously offered her $1000 to help find Mr Breward.

Jones entered the unit with one of his workers, Ricky John Izard, and began punching Mr Breward and demanding he tell him where his ute was, before the two men tied him up.

Jones then waterboarded Mr Breward and twice suffocated him with a plastic bag. The second time, Mr Breward didn’t wake up.

After an unsuccessful attempt to revive Mr Breward, the court heard his body was placed in a bean bag cover, wrapped in a tarpaulin Jones retrieved from his ute and taken away.

Mark Rodney Jones, then 22, pictured outside the Supreme Court in Launceston in 1998.

Jones and Izard bought groceries for Mr Lee from a supermarket, changed their clothes and went to Kmart to buy an inflatable raft.

The two men took Mr Breward’s body to Lake Eugenana, near Devonport, stopping at a Latrobe property to pick some weights that Jones had previously lent to a friend.

They later went to a George Town property belonging to another of Jones’ friends, where they burnt the raft, their clothes and Mr Breward’s clothes in a 44-gallon drum.

Prosecutors pointed to text messages Jones had sent friends while searching for Mr Breward, in which he said things like the 22-year-old would “die and be brought back to life many times over” as evidence of his intentions.

Jones’ counsel Greg Richardson said it made no sense for Jones to kill the one person who could potentially lead him to his missing ute.

The court heard Jones telling detectives that he thought a person could maintain consciousness for a couple of minutes while being suffocated with a plastic bag.

The jury didn't know that Izard pleaded guilty to manslaughter, aggravated burglary and perverting justice this month, days before Jones’ trial began.

Izard will face court on Monday while sentencing submissions for Jones will be heard next Thursday.