A Fayette County jury took only 45 minutes to decide that James VanDivner Jr. intended to kill his ex-girlfriend when he fired a pistol at her head.
Now, jurors will decide whether the 57-year-old Brownsville native should be executed for fatally shooting Michelle Cable.
The panel of eight men and four women convicted VanDivner on Thursday of first-degree murder and will hear prosecutors argue this morning that he should be put to death for shooting Cable, 41, on July 5, 2004.
In her closing argument yesterday, District Attorney Nancy Vernon said VanDivner deliberately killed Cable after ignoring her family's pleas for him to leave the Cable home in Grindstone, Jefferson Township.
"Mr. VanDivner was an unwelcome, uninvited intruder into the Cable home," Vernon said.
Cable's 18-year-old daughter, Jessica, testified Wednesday that VanDivner smiled and cursed at her mother after he fired the .22-caliber handgun.
Jurors also convicted VanDivner of attempted homicide for shooting Cable's 20-year-old son, Billy, who still has a bullet lodged in his spine.
They also found him guilty of two counts of aggravated assault, including one count for firing the weapon at Cable's neighbor, Larry Newman.
Defense attorneys insisted VanDivner could not have planned to murder Cable because of his mild mental retardation and because of his heavy drug and alcohol use in the hours before the shooting.
VanDivner's defense witnesses included an uncle, younger brother and ex-wife, who described him as taking several hits of crack cocaine and drinking at least a dozen beers that day.
Public Defender Susan Ritz Harper characterized VanDivner's demeanor after his arrest as remorseful.
After authorities found him in a Washington County field two days after the shooting, VanDivner told Trooper James Monkelis that he would have killed himself if he knew that Cable had died. Monkelis testified yesterday that VanDivner pledged to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.
Harper told jurors that the comments from the former truck driver with an IQ of 66 showed concern for his ex-girlfriend's condition.
"When he's sober, he realizes he's really screwed it up," Harper said.
Judge Gerald Solomon scheduled the penalty phase of the trial to begin at 9 a.m. today. Jurors then will deliberate whether VanDivner should be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
Prosecutors will argue the death penalty should be imposed because of three aggravating circumstances: that VanDivner killed Cable while committing a felony; he created a grave risk of death to others; and he has a significant history of violence.
Dianne Zerega, a private defense attorney, will represent VanDivner during this phase, presenting mitigating circumstances to the jury and arguing his life should be spared.
Solomon rejected a pretrial motion to quash the death penalty on the basis that VanDivner is mentally retarded.
He said last month that Zerega failed to prove an important legal stipulation -- that VanDivner's alleged mental retardation began before he was 18.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of a mentally retarded defendant is cruel and unusual punishment.
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