Gregory Gibbins was helping a young woman who was being harassed outside a NSW pizza shop when the local rugby league player was stabbed in the heart by a complete stranger.
Bradley James Brooks was found guilty today of fatally stabbing Mr Gibbins who, along with two friends, was escorting Amber Pellizzon after she'd asked them to walk her past the Central Coast pizzeria where a group of young men had been verbally abusing her.
A NSW Supreme Court jury found 21-year-old Brooks guilty of murdering Mr Gibbins, 28, and wounding his friend Adam Swindell, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, in Toukley in April, 2015.
"(Gregory) is someone who went out of his way to help people - he would give you the shirt off his back if he had to," his brother-in-law Daniel McCamley told reporters after the verdicts.
The jury returned today after little more than a day of deliberations. Some jurors were clearly upset and crying as the verdicts were delivered.
They'd previously been told as Ms Pellizzon and the three men walked toward the shop, a group of men "made comments towards her" and Brooks' younger brother Joel walked up to Mr Swindell and "stood very close", Crown prosecutor Huw Baker said during Brooks' trial.
The prosecutor told the court Mr Swindell said: "'What are you doing? I have nothing to do with this."
Bradley Brooks then pulled a knife from his pants and stabbed Mr Gibbins in the chest before he and his brother chased Mr Swindell.
The local footballer died from a single stab wound to the chest that pierced his heart.
Brooks unsuccessfully argued he acted in self-defence and to protect his brother who he said had been knocked to the ground during the argument.
Mr Swindell ran away but stopped when he realised he could not outrun the brothers, who then both struck him with a knife, cutting him severely on his upper right arm and his chest.
Mr Swindell on Wednesday said his friend, who was a hooker for Wyong in the NSW Cup competition, the second tier below the NRL.
"He loved footy, he played his whole life and he was good at it," Mr Swindell told AAP.
Mr McCamley, who spoke on behalf of the Gibbins family, said the guilty verdicts were a relief after a long two years.
"This is what we were hoping for but not expecting by any stretch of the imagination," he said, adding the number of people who'd supported the family during the trial showed "how many people he (Mr Gibbins) touched".
Brooks will face a sentence hearing on May 26.