A jury on Monday found Justin Drew Janpol guilty of first degree murder in the Nov. 2 stabbing death of David Maggiacomo, just three hours after attorneys presented their closing arguments.

"We're pleased with the verdict," 7th District Attorney Mike Blonigen said.

"The family expressed how kind the Casper community was," Blonigen added.

He was a little surprised at the speed of the deliberations and verdict but said Casper police and the Natrona County Coroner Dr. James Thorpen did a good job with the strong physical evidence.

Janpol's public defenders, Robert Oldham and Nichole Collier, treated the victim with dignity, Blonigen said.

Neither Oldham nor Collier could be reached for comment after the verdict.

The jury could have found him guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter or negligent homicide. First-degree murder is punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty. Blonigen did not seek the death penalty.

Janpol will be sentenced in three to four months, after a pre-sentence report is completed.

Both sides had finished presenting their evidence to the 14-person jury - 12 jurors and two alternates - on Friday after five days of testimony.

On Monday morning, District Court Judge Thomas Sullins read the jury instructions as the Maggiacomo family was being comforted by victim-witness coordinator Nancy Johnson.

Both Blonigen and Oldham recounted the circumstances of Janpol's attack, with Blonigen calling it premeditated and Oldham saying that it could have been the result of "heat of passion," panic, the effects of Janpol's mental illness, or self-defense.

Janpol met Maggiacomo at the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission at 230 N. Park St., according to a police report. Janpol was 20 and Maggiacomo was 28.

Maggiacomo, a Rhode Island native, had a history of mental illness, had been on the road and came to Casper to join a residential program at the mission.

On Nov. 2, both men had been suspended from the mission. Maggiacomo specifically was suspended for using alcohol

Janpol was no longer at the mission because of his involvement in a disturbance with his mother while the two were in Casper. His mother also had been staying at the mission.

The two men were accompanied by a third, Nathan Loneman, and they had been arguing that evening.

After leaving the mission in his mother's 2005 Chevrolet Malibu on the night of Nov. 2, Janpol was not seen there again until about 12:20 a.m. on Nov. 3 when a mission employee said he banged at the door. Janpol, with blood on his hands, forced his way upstairs to the women's dorm where his mother was staying, according to a police report.

In his closing argument, Blonigen told the jury that Janpol had made a conscious decision to kill Maggiacomo when he reached across the victim and drove a knife into his neck so hard it cut two major arteries and hit the cervical vertebrae. "It was carried out with incredible ferocity."

Janpol kept stabbing in a downward direction and pushed Maggiacomo from the moving car on Landmark Lane.

The DNA evidence was overwhelming, as was the evidence of the knife, Maggiacomo's backpack with his hand prints in blood, and Janpol's clothing, Blonigen said.

Janpol knew what he was doing as shown by his getting rid of the knife and other evidence, and comments made earlier that evening, he said.

The state had no obligation to prove Janpol's motive, only that he did it, Blonigen said. "You can't make sense out of the senseless."

'Why,' not 'what'

But Oldham argued that the jury was missing the point if it did not consider motives and other circumstances - the "why" - in what was undoubtedly a tragic death, he said.

"Not every killing is a murder," Oldman said, quoting Collier's opening statement.

"These were young men who were friends," he said.

Janpol gave Maggiacomo a knife earlier that day, Oldham said. "You don't give a knife to someone if you expect a confrontation."

That evening, Maggiacomo had made a cell phone call in which the terms "easy money" and "$2,000" were mentioned, and Janpol was afraid of what might happen.

Blonigen later explained that Janpol thought Maggiacomo was trying to order an execution, and that's what supposedly angered him.

Loneman, who has been in jail, told the jury last week that the state did not want him to say that Janpol told him he was sorry, Oldham said.

Janpol did not clean up thoroughly before police arrived, and he was "'babbling incoherently'" when he was being interviewed by police, he said.

Janpol, whose IQ is about 130, also suffered from severe mental illness that had him institutionalized 20 times since he was 10 years old; and he was not taking medications at the time of the killing because he could not obtain them, Oldham said.

As he concluded, Oldham told the jury that he would no longer be able to protect Janpol.

"I ask you to look beyond what happened and ask why it happened," he said.

In his rebuttal, Blonigen repeated that the act of stabbing spoke for itself, and that Janpol could not hide behind a defense of self-defense or insanity.

"It was done with intent and malice," Blonigen said.

Reporter Tom Morton can be reached at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@casperstartribune.net.