CARROLL, IOWA - His fate in the hands of a jury, Michael Swanson was escorted past a group of TV cameras Thursday in the Carroll County Courthouse. The 18-year-old extended both middle fingers and smiled.
That was before he learned he would spend the rest of his life in prison for shooting convenience store clerk Sheila Myers in the face, killing her. That, too, didn't seem to faze him.
"I'm good," he said with a grin following his convictions for first-degree murder and first-degree robbery.
It took a jury less than an hour to convict Swanson for Myers' slaying on Nov. 15, 2010, rejecting defense attorney Charles Kenville's argument that the defendant, then 17, was insane and didn't know right from wrong when he shot and killed her.
Swanson gave a grin and swiveled in his chair when the verdict was read. Myers' husband of 37 years, Roger, and daughters Mandy and Robin showed little reaction, as they have throughout the trial.
A first-degree murder conviction in Iowa carries an automatic sentence of life without parole. But formal sentencing will be scheduled after Swanson's trial next month in Rock Rapids, Iowa, for allegedly shooting and killing clerk Vicky Bowman-Hall, 42, in Algona, Iowa, the same night.
The remarkably fast verdict followed a speedy four-day trial in which Assistant Iowa Attorney General Becky Goettsch presented several pieces of evidence.
The most compelling was a two-hour videotaped interview with Iowa investigators, in which Swanson calmly discussed stealing his mother's Jeep and credit cards, heading north to a family cabin in Bigfork, Minn., and then south to Humboldt, Iowa. That was where he robbed Myers, 61, at gunpoint for $31 before shooting her and walking out of the store. She died behind the counter.