BOSTON -- A man was convicted Monday of murdering his best friend's pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend by stabbing her, beating her with a rock and burying her alive.

Video

Watch Full Report

Chauntae Jones' boyfriend, Kyle Bryant, was acquitted of her killing in April and the verdict brought outrage. Each man had blamed the other for Jones' death.

On Monday, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Bryant's friend, Lord Hampton, 25, of the deaths of the girl and her unborn baby.

Hampton faces an automatic life sentence without parole on two counts of murder in the 1999 slayings.

Prosecutor David Meier described Hampton and Bryant as "two men together with a purpose and a plan" to kill Jones, who was eight months pregnant when she disappeared.

"His friend (Bryant) should have got it too -- they both did it and they knew they did it," said Pam Jones, the victim's mother. "Both of them should have got life."

But Hampton's attorney, Randy Gioia, argued that Hampton had no reason to kill Jones, while Bryant did: Before Jones was killed, a judge threatened to prosecute Bryant on statutory rape charges for getting her pregnant. Jones was 13 when she became pregnant and Bryant was 17.

Bryant had said previously that Hampton decided to kill Jones as a favor to him and hoped he would repay him by later killing a man. He told police that Hampton choked her, stabbed her with a 6-inch steak knife and bludgeoned her.

Jones suffocated on the dirt used to cover her.

Gioia released a statement after the verdict that said, "Our defense has always been that Lord Hampton was a scapegoat. He is the fall guy and he took the fall today." Gioia said they plan to appeal the verdict.

On an audiotape played for the jury, Hampton said Bryant killed Jones.