Frank Gebhardt was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, June 26, for killing a black man named Timothy Coggins in 1983. 

According to NBC News, Gebhardt, 60, was sentenced after a jury found him guilty of malice murder, felony murder and other counts for the death of Coggins who was 23 years old at the time of his death. Coggins was stabbed 30 times and dragged behind a pickup truck. The prosecutor said the killing was motivated by Coggins socializing with a white woman. His body was found along a rural road in Spalding County, Georgia, in October 1983, NBC News reported.

Coggins' niece, Heather Coggins, told reporters their family had waited more than 34 years for justice, local Fox 5 Atlanta reported. 

"We thought we'd never be here today," she said. "My grandparents went to their grave with this murder being unsolved."

According to the Associated Press, Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix said in October the evidence in the case indicated the crime was "racially motivated."

"Based on the original evidence recovered in 1983 and new evidence and interviews, there is no doubt in the minds of all investigators involved that the crime was racially motivated and that if the crime happened today it would be prosecuted as a hate crime," he said.

According to CNN, Gebhardt's co-defendant, Bill Moore Sr., is expected to stand trial later this year on the same charges. Gebhardt and Moore were among five people – two of them law enforcement – arrested this past October in connection to Coggins' death. 

"Now, Tim, my grandma and my grandpa can rest in peace," Heather Coggins said, according to CNN.

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