Life in prison for Maureen Boyce's killer

Thomas Chris Lang will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a jury found he killed Brisbane socialite Maureen Boyce in a "fit of jealous rage".

The former model's family broke down in tears on Tuesday as they learned her lover was guilty of her 2015 murder.

The 68-year-old was found in the bed of her Kangaroo Point sub-penthouse on the morning of October 22 with a cooking knife so deeply embedded in her abdomen part of the handle was inside her body.

The Brisbane Supreme Court jury took just two hours to reach its guilty verdict, rejecting Lang's claims she had become so distressed on the night she died that she committed suicide.

Justice Peter Flanagan immediately sentenced the American citizen to life behind bars for the fatal attack on an "utterly defenceless" Ms Boyce as she slept.

Justice Flanagan said the lies he told to cover up how she died suggested "a complete lack of remorse", and the jury's verdict was consistent with a finding he was "fuelled by a fit of jealous rage" when he killed her.

Ms Boyce's husband Graham fought back tears as he spoke about how his wife's reputation had been "sullied in the media" throughout the trial when she did not have the chance to defend herself.

"She was a wonderful person, mother and wife and not just a socialite," he said.

"I loved Maureen, I understood her, I understood her illness and respected the marriage vows we took some 40 years ago."