‘Hallelujah’: Family grateful for guilty verdict in 1985 kidnap, murder of 17-year-old Leslie McCray

After 41 years of grief, unanswered questions and relentless persistence, the family of Leslie McCray heard the word they had longed for since Christmas Eve 1985: Guilty.In a bench trial (no jury), Judge Meredith Charbula found David Nelson Austin, 65, guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of armed kidnapping and one count of armed sexual battery in the 17-year-old’s stabbing death.“I wanted to jump up when she said guilty on the first charge and just shout, ‘Hallelujah!’” said Joey Bray, McCray’s first cousin. “I knew I couldn’t. But God was in that courtroom today, and He saw fit to us having justice for Leslie.”RELATED: Judge convicts man of kidnapping, murder in 1985 Christmas Eve slaying of Jacksonville teenWATCH: Press play below to see the family’s remarks after the verdictMcCray was kidnapped at knifepoint from her St. Johns Avenue duplex in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve 1985. She was found sexually assaulted and stabbed to death hours later in a ravine.For decad