By AP/KWMU
Belleville, Ill. – It took a Belleville jury three hours today to convict a man of shooting his ex-girlfriend, her infant son and two others to death with a shotgun.
Prosecutors called the crime more than two years ago a "slaughter."
Later the jurors who found Jason Smith guilty of four first-degree murder counts are to decide whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Joe Christ described Smith as being a "man on a mission" of destruction on October 5th, 2005.
That's when Smith's ex-girlfriend Nicole Willyard, her infant son and two of her acquaintances were gunned down in a Belleville apartment.
Defense attorney Corey Easton, however, called the case against Smith "careless" and told the jury that the crime scene investigator's work was "sloppy."