It took a jury of 12 Yukoners fewer than three hours Friday to find a Whitehorse man guilty of date rape in 2008, after hearing four days of evidence for and against him.

Billy Field, 38, was convicted of sexual assault and administering a drug in the commission of an offence.

During the prosecution's case, the four-woman, eight-man jury heard from the police officer who received much of the evidence in the case, the woman who was assaulted, an expert witness from the RCMP's forensic analysis lab in Vancouver and the woman's young daughter.

Their various testimonies supported the Crown's theory that shortly after arriving at the woman's house, Field dropped an amount of zopiclone, a sleeping drug, into her wine.

The woman told Yukon Supreme Court she remembered nothing after the first glass of wine, and awoke naked on the living room floor the next morning, with Field beside her.

When she asked what was going on, he said, "Don't you remember drinking a bottle and a half of wine last night?' He also told her the two had sex three or four times throughout the evening.

It wasn't until Field was gone that the woman started to realize something had happened. Her daughter, then nine years old, told her she had been stumbling naked around the house and acting very strange.

"I told her everything and she was so surprised,” the girl said on the stand. "... She just had this shocked look on her face and she just sounded really disappointed with herself.”

The woman remembered nothing of the night and called the 811 nursing line to say she thought she had been raped.

From there, Const. Chris Terleski began what would ultimately be a long and "shoddy” investigation, according to the defence's argument.

Terleski never took a close look at the crime scene. He only came as far as the woman's front door, where she handed him the wine bottles and glasses the pair had used the night before. The next day, she dropped off a pair of Field's socks and underwear at the detachment.

In his closing arguments, defence lawyer Malcolm Campbell suggested that perhaps the woman had planted the evidence as a way to get back at Field for dumping her, but the jury rejected that theory.

Although the woman filed a complaint against Field on Oct. 26, 2008, the investigation continued into 2009, and it wasn't until the spring that Field was even brought in for questioning.

At around that time, Terleski received a note from his detachment commander urging him to close the case as soon as possible, the court heard.

Pressure from the public and from Yukon MP Larry Bagnell was mounting, the commander said, and the case needed to be resolved. Shortly after, a more senior officer took over the file and charges were laid against Field.

But the doubt cast by a slow and procedurally inaccurate investigation was not enough for the members of the jury.

The day after hearing Field speak in his defence, they found him guilty.

In her closing statement, Crown prosecutor Jen Grandy described Field as unresponsive and evasive on the stand.

She pointed to the many times during his cross-examination when he avoided answering the questions or gave quibbling, argumentative responses.

"There wasn't a ring of truth to many of the explanations he provided,” she said.

The jury members were given their instructions by presiding judge Leigh Gower shortly after lunch on Friday, and by 4:30 p.m., they returned with a verdict.

All 12 rose to show their agreement as each guilty verdict was read out to the court. Field's girlfriend, who was in the courtroom for the entire trial, wept.

Before releasing the jury, Gower said, "Your presence in this courtroom helps to keep the law in touch with the values and beliefs of the community .... Thank you.”

Although Field has been free on bail since shortly after his arrest in the spring of 2009, Gower agreed with the prosecution that Field should await sentencing in jail.

The maximum penalty for the double-barreled crime of drugging a person in order to commit a sexual assault is life imprisonment.

A date has not been set for his sentencing.

The Star has learned Field was scheduled to appear in family court in Terrace, B.C. today on an unrelated matter.