The man accused of sexually assaulting and strangling 22-year-old Tess Richey just hours after meeting her in November 2017 has been found guilty of first-degree murder in her death.

Jurors at 23-year-old Kalen Schlatter’s murder trial reached the verdict after three days of deliberations.

The Crown previously told the court that Schlatter sexually assaulted and strangled Richey in an outdoor stairwell of a building under renovation near Church and Dundonald streets in the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2017.

Video surveillance footage captured that morning showed Schlatter and Richey walking hand-in-hand down a laneway toward the exterior stairwell shortly after 4 a.m.

Schlatter was seen walking back down the laneway alone about 45 minutes later.

Richey’s lifeless body was found at the bottom of the stairwell on Nov. 29, four days after she was reported missing by her family.

The discovery was made by Richey’s mother and a family friend, who were frantically searching the neighbourhood to find her.

Schlatter’s semen and saliva were found on Richey’s clothing, jurors previously heard.

Schlatter, who testified in his own defence, maintained that the sexual encounter with Richey was consensual, claiming that she was alive when he left her in the stairwell that morning.

The defence also accused another man of attacking the victim after Schlatter left.

Prosecutors said Schlatter killed Richey after she refused to have sex with him.

Schlatter met Richey and one of her friends outside Crews and Tangos in the city's Church-Wellesley Village shortly after the bar let out on the morning she was killed.

The three wandered around the neighbourhood for a couple of hours before Richey's friend left.

A short time later, Richey ordered an Uber to go home but the driver cancelled the ride when she didn't show up.

A former cellmate of the accused previously testified that Schlatter confided in him about the murder.

He said Schlatter told him he choked Richey to death with a scarf and ejaculated on her body.

The cellmate told the court that Schlatter also said when it was over, he took money from Richey's purse to pay for a cab home.