People honk, cry and raise fists in solidarity after Tim Bosma trial verdict

Passing drivers honked their horns in front of the Hamilton courthouse. "Guilty!" one woman shouted, and hooted out the window. Several raised their fists in solidarity.

When a jury found Dellen Millard and Mark Smich guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Tim Bosma on Friday, it was like all of Hamilton knew. And it likely did.

"They got it right," said Bill Thorkildsen, a west Mountain resident who came down to the lawn across the street from the courthouse, just to watch.

A group of Christian Reformed Church members cheered when they heard of the verdict. They've been there all week, said Carol Sybenga, who organized the group. Passersby have been stopping to cry, or to pray.

"There are people who said 'Can I pray with you?' and I said 'Oh yes, that would be great,'" she said. "When I finished, tears would come."

Friday's verdict wrapped up a long case that has resonated with the city and with the country at large.

Bosma was an Ancaster father with a wife named Sharlenewhen he advertised his truckfor sale online. Around 9 p.m. on May 6, 2013, two men arrived for a supposed test drive Millard and Smich and killed Bosma, a jury found Friday. They incinerated his body on a Waterloo-area farm. A judge sentenced them to 25 years to life.

When Bosma went missing, thesearch went on for days. Canadians retweeted, and Facebooked, and talked about his disappearance. And the country has been captivated by the trial.

• Tim Bosma trial: Millard and Smich guilty of 1st-degree murder
• Dellen Millard: How a wealthy aviation heir became a convicted murderer

It's the randomness of it, said Kathy Johnson of Hamilton, who also sat on the bench across from the courthouse, behind the throng of media waiting for Sharlene Bosma to appear.

"That could have been anybody I know, any one of my friends or my family," she said. "The random act of it and the senselessness of it was hard to believe."

A handful of Hamiltonians gathered at the old courthouse across the street from the John Sopinka courthouse around 3 p.m., the time everyone had heard the verdict would be rendered.

He was just an ordinary guy doing an ordinary thing.- Carol Sybenga

Some stayed for two hours, checking their phones and keeping a safe distance from the thick row of media.

Many said it was the random nature of the crime that grabbed their attention. And they were all happy about the guilty verdict.

One of them was Dorothy Mullett of Hamilton, who described the verdict as "awesome. Justice has been served."

The Christian Reformed Church members collected more than 100 colourful well-wishing notes from people that they plan to give to the Bosmas. The community reaction has been "profound," Sybenga said.

"He was just an ordinary guy doing an ordinary thing," she said. "He was selling his truck."