FARGO, N.D. -- It was as if emotion had been drained from the courtroom in the days of passion and argument leading up to this critical moment.

"Guilty," the court clerk read at noon Wednesday from the jury verdict form, and there were no gasps or sighs, no words of approval or disapproval.

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. showed no emotion either as he was convicted of kidnapping 22-year-old college student Dru Sjodin in 2003 and causing her death. Seated behind him, his mother and sister quietly dabbed at tears.

His attorneys, who now will fight to save him from a death penalty, showed no surprise. Nor did prosecutors, who waited until the brief proceedings were over to share subdued smiles and handshakes.

Stoic and subdued, too, were Linda Walker and Allan Sjodin, Dru's parents, who quietly embraced relatives and friends outside the courtroom.

"We've just decided to refrain from commenting until the whole process is completed," Walker said. "Thanks so much for your support, and everybody out there."

On Tuesday, the same seven women and five men who found Rodriguez guilty will be asked to determine whether the crime fits eligibility requirements set out in the federal death-penalty statute. If they decide it does, they will consider aggravating and mitigating factors and retire a third time to pass sentence, either death or life in prison.

Judge Ralph Erickson said the court will convene without the jury today to hash out questions concerning witnesses the government plans to call in the penalty phase and the admissibility of some autopsy and crime scene photographs.

Jurors got the case at 4 p.m. Tuesday but met for only an hour, choosing a foreman and receiving some of the more than 100 exhibits entered during the trial. They resumed deliberations at 9 a.m. Wednesday, and about 2½ hours later notified Erickson that a verdict had been reached.

As Rodriguez, 53, waited at the defense table, flanked by his attorneys and U.S. marshals, Walker arrived just before noon and took her customary seat on an aisle. About two dozen other family members and close friends followed her in, many touching her on a shoulder as they passed.

Jurors also showed little emotion, focusing intently on the court clerk as he read their verdict. Each answered "yes" as they were polled to confirm their unanimous verdict.

Outside, as Sjodin family members skirted several dozen journalists, family friend Bob Heales stopped and said, "There's probably a million things to say right now, but they've asked us not to comment."

Asked if the verdict brought some relief, Heales replied, "I don't think we're done yet."

Jurors not persuaded

After months of wrangling over jurisdictional, procedural and evidentiary issues, the first death-penalty prosecution in North Dakota in a century began on July 6 with an often turgid jury selection process.

In eight days of trial, prosecutors called 52 witnesses, the defense only one, a forensic scientist who challenged autopsy findings by Ramsey County Medical Examiner Michael McGee that Sjodin likely was sexually assaulted.

In his closing argument Tuesday, defense attorney Robert Hoy told jurors the government had failed to prove when, where and how Sjodin died.

"Simply connecting Alfonso Rodriguez to Dru Sjodin [through fibers, DNA and circumstantial evidence] does not answer when Dru Sjodin died," he said, and he suggested that Sjodin could have died within minutes of being pushed into the car, a bag over her head. The movement of her body to a ravine outside Crookston would be incidental to the assault, Hoy said, and would fall outside interstate transportation as defined by the federal kidnapping law. Under that scenario, he argued, Rodriguez should have been tried in a state court, where the death penalty is not available.