A federal jury deliberated less than four hours today before returning a guilty verdict in the trial of Alfonso Rodriquez Jr. for the kidnapping and murder of 22-year-old University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin in November 2003. The verdict sets up the first death penalty phase of a trial in North Dakota in more than 100 years.

Jurors will return next Tuesday to the federal court in Fargo to begin to decide if previously convicted sex offender Rodriguez will face the death penalty. North Dakota does not have a death penalty, but Rodriquez was tried in federal court where the death penalty is allowed.

Sjodin was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003 while she was talking with her boyfriend in Minnesota on her cell phone. Her body was found after the snow melted the following April in a ravine near Crookston, Minnesota near where Rodriguez lived.

Prosecutors said Sjodin was stabbed, raped and left to die.

See Also:
Sex Offender Convicted in N.D. Slaying

Background:
The Murder of Dru Sjodin