BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A jury convicted a man of first-degree murder Thursday in the rape and killing of a 13-year-old boy, but it spared the man from the death penalty by rejecting a more serious capital murder count.
Joshua Macabe Brown, 23, faces up to life in prison for the death of Jesse Dirkhising.
The jurors already had voted Wednesday to convict Brown on a rape charge, which can carry a life sentence.
Brown stood motionless, his head down and his eyes shut, as the verdict was read. Brown's sister hugged their mother, while Dirkhising's mother, Tina Yates, sobbed softly.
Dirkhising was drugged, bound, raped and sodomized in September 1999 at the apartment Brown shared with his gay lover, Davis Don Carpenter, 39.
Prosecutors said the boy suffocated because of the drugs and the way he was trussed up and strapped down to Brown's bed.
The defense said Brown didn't intend to kill the boy and suggested the bondage-sex was consensual.
Carpenter is to be tried later.
Immediately after the murder verdict was announced Thursday morning, prosecutors began calling witnesses for the sentencing phase of the trial.
The jurors had been split 10-2 on the murder question when they quit Wednesday, but did not disclose further details. Clinger told them to resume deliberations to try to reach consensus. In all, the jurors deliberated around 10 hours on the two days.
Brown had admitted binding and gagging the boy and sexually penetrating him with a variety of objects, but defense attorney Louis Lim contended Brown was guilty of nothing more than statutory rape and manslaughter.
"I think we can all agree that Josh didn't knowingly cause his death," Lim said. "This is pointing to negligence."
Second-degree murder, which carries a 5- to 20-year prison term, is the state's general murder charge. Capital and first-degree murder charges include references to specific categories of victim, including someone below age 14.
Wednesday, jurors asked to see Brown's pretrial mental analysis, but Clinger denied the request because Brown's mental health wasn't an issue. The report, which says Brown was competent to stand trial, wasn't introduced as evidence.
The eight-woman, four-man jury did, however, receive piles of evidence it requested to review. The items and papers included notes and a diagram, a bloody pillow, duct tape and underwear that the state said was stuffed into Jesse's mouth.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Bob Balfe told jurors that logic shows the boy wasn't a willing participant in a sexual bondage game.
Making a late-night run for more duct tape, picking up only two sandwiches instead of three, and leaving the child unattended all prove the men weren't concerned about Jesse's welfare, Balfe said.
"Why did they need more duct tape? Was it because he was struggling?" Balfe asked jurors.