Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. is eligible for the death penalty, jurors decided today in Rodriguez's federal trial in Fargo.
The verdict means the trial will now move to a third stage in which jurors will determine whether Rodriguez spends the remainder of his life in prison or is executed for kidnapping and killing Dru Sjodin.
Jurors began deliberating the eligibility question around noon Wednesday and quit for the day at 5 p.m.
After resuming deliberations at 9 a.m., jurors returned the verdict shortly after 1:30 p.m. today. Last week, the jury deliberated less than four hours before finding Rodriguez guilty of kidnapping resulting in the death of Sjodin, who was abducted from the parking lot of the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, N.D., Nov. 22, 2003.
Her remains were found the following April in a ravine near Crookston, Minn., Rodriguez's hometown.
