Jury: Sex offender killed N.D. student

FARGO, N.D. -- A federal jury declared a convicted sex offender guilty Wednesday in the kidnapping and killing of college student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found abandoned in a Minnesota ravine.\nThe verdict against Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. clears the way for the first death penalty deliberations in North Dakota in more than a century.\nRodriguez stared straight ahead as the verdict was read.\nSjodin, 22, a University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks, Minn. shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003. Her body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston, Minn. Rodriguez lived in Crookston at the time.\nProsecutors said Sjodin was stabbed, raped and left to die.\nThe jury deliberated for less than four hours before returning the verdict.\nA separate trial will be held to decide Rodriguez's sentence. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty; North Dakota does not have the death penalty, but it is allowed in federal cases.\nIn closing arguments Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley told jurors Sjodin fought for her life and left "unmistakable" evidence about the crime.\nRodriguez's attorney, Robert Hoy, said the government failed to prove its case. He said a medical examiner called to testify by prosecutors could not say for certain where Sjodin died, when she died or the cause of her death.\nBut Wrigley told jurors that blood found in Rodriguez's car matched Sjodin's DNA. He said it was found in a mist pattern, indicating Sjodin fought her attacker and was beaten.\n"Ladies and gentlemen, Dru Sjodin battled him every step of the way, and she left us unmistakable messages," Wrigley said.