“Guilty,” the white folded up piece of paper said, which a juror read Thursday morning.
A second man was convicted of murdering Mark Fisher ’06 in 2003, after jurors asked for more time to decide his fate.
Antonio Russo, 19, and John Guica, 21, who was convicted on Tuesday, face 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and robbery.
While deliberating, jurors had claimed that “hollering and screaming” had occurred in the jury room, the Daily Record reported.
“We went over every piece of evidence,” one juror said, The New York Times reported. “We looked at the testimonies again and again to make sure we came to the right decision.”
“We’re just regular people, but we all gave our blood, sweat and tears, and in the end, we think justice was served,” she said.
A series of unfortunate events led Fisher to a Brooklyn house party during his first unsupervised trip to New York City. It was there that he mistakenly sat on a table, angered Guica, a resident of the house, and gang member of “Ghetto Mafia.”
Fisher was beaten, robbed for $20 and shot five times. He was found the next morning on a Brooklyn street.
Guica had been heard the week prior to Fisher’s murder saying that in order to prove commitment to the gang, each member would have to commit homicide. Fisher was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Russo seemed “resigned to his fate,” according to The New York Times. When jurors were walking into the courtroom to announce their decision, he was humming a song, tapping his fingers and moving his head to the beat.
“He kind of expected that things were going to go the way they went yesterday,” Jonathan Fink, Russo’s attorney, said on Thursday, Newsday reported.
Fisher’s parents, Michael and Nancy, left Brooklyn State Supreme Court surrounded by reporters and photographers, Newsday reported.
“We’re numb,” said Michael Fisher. “Our bodies are numb.”
During the trial, prosecutors told the jurors that it was possible that other gang members were involved in Fisher’s murder.
“We just hope if there was anyone else involved that they be brought to justice,” Michael Fisher said, Newsday reported.
Both Russo and Guica and scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 19.
Michael Fisher, leaving the courtroom on Thursday said, “I’m sure if these people got to know my son, they probably would have liked him,” The New York Times reported.
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