Guilty verdict in 1994 murder of Bonnie Craig, Alaska college student
(CBS/AP) ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Nearly 17 years after Alaska college student Bonnie Craig was beaten to death, a former army paratrooper has been convicted of her murder.
A jury of nine men and three women deliberated just a few hours Wednesday before finding 41-year-old Kenneth Dion guilty of raping and murdering the University of Alaska Anchorage student, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The killing the 18-year-old Craig in 1994 went cold until a DNA match with Dion in 2006. At the time Dion was in a New Hampshire prison for armed robberies.
He was indicted in the Craig case in 2007.
Craig's body was found Sept. 28, 1994, in McHugh Creek south of Anchorage.
Dion bludgeoned the back of Craig's head, causing her death, prosecutors said during closing arguments.
Dion's attorney, Andrew Lambert, said Craig had consensual sex with his client and that it wasn't until later that the young woman fell to her death from a cliff.
Prosecutors said the claim of consensual sex was unfounded and instead insisted that Craig was "hopelessly in love" with her long-distance boyfriend at the time, reported CBS affiliate KTVA.
Sentencing for Dion is scheduled for Oct. 31, KTVA reported.
More on Crimesider
May 18, 2011 -Ex-soldier on trial for '94 Alaska coed's murder