MYERS GUILTY

MARTINSVILLE -- It took a jury of his peers 50 minutes to find John R. Myers II guilty of the 2000 murder of IU sophomore Jill Behrman.\nMyers remained stoic, as he had throughout most of the 11-day trial, as Judge Christopher Burnham read the verdict. Myers, 31, hugged defense attorney Patrick Baker and, as police led him out of the courtroom in handcuffs, winked at his family, clicked his tongue and said simply, "Love ya."\nJill's parents, Eric and Marilyn Behrman, told reporters afterward they were relieved the trial was over.\n"We're pleased with the jury's decision," Eric Behrman said. "We know it was hard for them to make."\nJill Behrman vanished during a morning bike ride May 31, 2000. Her bicycle was found two days later in a cornfield outside Ellettsville, less than a mile from the trailer Myers was living in at the time. Hunters found her skeletal remains in March 2003 near Paragon, Ind. Forensic evidence suggested Behrman was shot in the back of the head at close range with a shotgun.\nProsecutors had no direct evidence to make their case. Myers and Jill Behrman had no known relationship, no murder weapon has been found and there were no witnesses to the crime.\n"The state offers no physical evidence, no DNA, no fingerprints, no shotgun, no clothing fibers, no hair samples, no footprints," Baker said in his closing arguments. "The facts are circumstantial evidence. They're not even circumstantial evidence. They're speculation, guesswork, suggestion."\nIn his rebuttal, Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega admitted the evidence was largely circumstantial but said the comments Myers made to family and friends strongly indicated he was involved in Jill Behrman's murder.\nDuring the trial, Baker tried to sway jurors, suggesting Jill Behrman might have been pregnant with an older man's child and the unwanted pregnancy was motive for someone else to murder her. \nInvestigators found several books about pregnancy in Jill Behrman's room, but friends and family members said they were for a human sexuality class she took her freshman year.\nJurors did not buy the defense's argument.\n"I did not feel those books proved she was pregnant," juror No. 40, a woman, said. "She may have been, but I didn't feel the proof was there."\nFive members of the six-man, six-woman jury spoke to the media after the verdict was read but declined to be identified by name.\n"The group went around the table one time, and everyone explained their opinions and gave their reasons why," said juror No. 85, a man, about the jury's decision process. "Going around the room one time, it was unanimous."\nJurors said the most convincing testimonies they heard were from Myers' ex-girlfriend Carly Goodman, his aunt Debbie Bell and his grandmother Betty Swaffard.\nGoodman testified that Myers drove her to the spot where Jill Behrman's remains were found several months before she disappeared.\nBell and Swaffard testified about conversations they had with Myers that they said implicated him in Behrman's disappearance.\nSwaffard testified Oct. 21 that Myers told her, "Grandma, if you just knew the things on my mind ... if the authorities knew, I'd spend the rest of my life in prison."\nIndiana State Police Detective Rick Lang, who has worked on the Behrman case since 2003, praised Bell and Swaffard for coming forward.\n"When I met Debbie and Betty, I knew these were the kind of people who don't come around anymore because they do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do," he said.\nSonnega echoed that sentiment.\n"(Swaffard) told me she cried until she had no more tears left, but she had to do it to clear her conscience," he said.\nDefense attorneys and Myers' family left the courthouse within minutes of the verdict being announced without speaking to reporters.\nThe trial was expected to last as many as four weeks but was cut short when the defense only called two witnesses to testify and performed little cross-examination of many of the prosecution's 53 witnesses.\nMyers' sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 1. He faces 45 to 65 years in prison. Myers had previously been convicted on charges of battery and receiving stolen property, according to The Associated Press.