OSHKOSH – A jury on Thursday found a 28-year-old man guilty of killing his girlfriend at their Fox Crossing home in 2021 after a four-day trial.

Phillip Dellar was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

On July 25, 2021, Dellar called police and said someone had killed his girlfriend. When police arrived at an address in the 1100 block of Valley Road, they found Dellar shirtless, crying and covered in blood, according to a criminal complaint. Dellar told police an intruder had stabbed his girlfriend, 30-year-old Leianna Mulé, and attacked him when he tried to stop them.

Mulé was dead by the time police arrived. An autopsy found she had more than 70 knife wounds, the complaint says.

Dellar told investigators that before the attack he had stepped outside for about 10 minutes to smoke a cigarette, and when he returned, an intruder was stabbing his girlfriend, according to the complaint. He claimed he had tried to fight the attacker, but they stabbed him.

A small child was locked in another room when police arrived, according to the complaint. He was uninjured, but had "a dime-sized drop of blood" on his ankle.

Police took Dellar to Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton for wounds on his hands. At the hospital, a nurse found "strands of long black hair" wrapped around one of Dellar's hands, and a doctor performing surgery on Dellar's hands told investigators he did not believe Dellar's lacerations were defensive wounds, the complaint says.

During a search of the apartment, investigators found a large knife on the kitchen table with suspected blood on it, near Dellar's prescription glasses.

Multiple friends of Mulé's told police Dellar and Mulé had been fighting and recently broke up. A neighbor told investigators they regularly heard fights between the pair that at times sounded physical.

Dellar was arrested and charged with Mulé's murder less than two weeks after her death.

During the trial, the prosecution, led by Winnebago County Assistant District Attorney Amanda Nash, presented 16 witnesses. Dellar was the only person to testify for his defense.

The jury reached its verdict Thursday morning after just 20 minutes of deliberation, according to court records.

Dellar's sentencing hearing is set for 9 a.m. Sept. 6.

RELATED: Man who claimed intruder fatally stabbed girlfriend in Fox Crossing apartment charged in her death

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Fox Crossing man convicted of killing girlfriend in 2021