Conviction in murder of former FOX 5 intern Chris Mader - DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG

A man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the 2004 shooting of a Waldorf bartender.

A Charles County jury convicted Matthew Derek Correll on Friday in the slaying of Christopher Mader. Correll will be sentenced Aug. 21.  The jury deliberated for two hours.

Correll was arrested in 2010 after reward money was pledged and the case was featured on "America's Most Wanted."

Twenty-three-year-old Chris Mader was also part of the FOX 5 family, where he worked as a sports intern. When Mader was murdered in 2004 after leaving a bartending shift at a local restaurant in Waldorf. There were no suspects and no motive. But his family and the local sheriff's office never gave up.

Around 3 a.m.Thanksgiving 2004, an off-duty D.C. Police officer called 911 after hearing gunshots and a crash. Mader was found inside his car shot to death.

In the days, weeks, months and years that followed, family and friends raised reward money and kept the case public, hoping someone would call with information.

For six years, detectives labored to determine just what happened after Mader left his shift at Bennigan's. They say he became the target of a robbery.

Police said, on his way home Mader had an encounter with someone who wanted to rob him. A tip started detectives on a path that led to them to Matthew Correll of King George, Va. He had a lengthy criminal history that includes assault and animal abuse.

"It just ate at me every day not knowing why," said Mader's mother, Samantha Payne in October of 2010 when Correll was arrested. "And now that we know this, Chris is not coming back, but we have closure that we never would have had without Charles County."

Tony Covington, State's Attorney for Charles County and his Deputy Karen Piper tried the case.  Covington reacted to the verdict saying he was "gratified that after all these years we had a hand in bringing closure and, I hope, an increased sense of peace to the Mader family."