DURHAM - Sharlene Pence tried to catch the eye of each of the 12 jurors as they filed quietly out of a Durham County courtroom Friday afternoon. After three days of deliberations, the jury had found Todd Boggess, 31, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her oldest son, Danny.

Twelve years had passed since the Wilmington high school honor student was found beaten to death in the woods of northern Durham County. Still, Pence found herself racked with emotions -- consumed by the grief of her son's death and seconds later overwhelmed by the joys of his short life.

"Thank you," Pence, flush-faced and tear-streaked, mouthed to the jurors.

For five weeks, the mother of the victim spent most of her days in a chilly, air-conditioned courtroom as Boggess was tried a second time.

Boggess was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to death, a verdict the N.C. Supreme Court overturned in 2004 because of a judge's error.

In the retrial, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty -- in part because Sharlene Pence had made clear that she did not want to monitor the lengthy appeals process that capital cases bring.

During 2 1/2 weeks of testimony, jurors heard a much younger Boggess talking about the August 1995 killing in a series of police interviews taped shortly after his arrest. In great detail, Boggess described the entire 12-hour encounter that culminated in the murder.

Jurors also heard the defense's only witness, Dr. George Corvin, a Raleigh psychiatrist, testify about the severe sexual abuse that Boggess suffered for at least five years of his childhood. From age 7 to 12 and perhaps longer, Boggess was sexually molested and abused several times a week by his father -- in their home, in the woods, in the back of a car and other places.

Steven Freedman and Jim Glover, the Chapel Hill lawyers who represented Boggess, did not dispute the defendant's participation in the killing. But they argued that he should not be held accountable because he was in an altered state at the time, a separation of his mind and body that he had learned as a coping skill during the years of abuse.

Prosecutors Mitchell Garrell and Luke Bumm urged jurors to look at the case in a different way.

They said Boggess planned the killing during the 12-hour journey that started at the Wrightsville Beach pier, where the defendant and his then-girlfriend, Melanie Gray of Durham, met Pence.

It started with a car

Pence was trying to sell his Ford Mustang. Boggess, then 19, and Gray, then 14, had talked Pence into letting them test-drive the car.

During that test drive, according to prosecutors, Pence was abducted, blindfolded and tied up, then driven to the crumbling ruins of a home in the woods off Terry Road north of Durham.

Prosecutors urged the jury to find the defendant guilty of kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon -- two felonies that could lead to a first-degree murder conviction. Under state law, killing someone while committing felonies, even if the slaying was not planned and premeditated, could constitute first-degree murder.

The jury's verdict -- guilty of first-degree murder and the two additional felonies -- came shortly before noon.

Since Wednesday the jurors had carefully gone down Judge Ripley Rand's 22 pages of instructions and weighed the many charges they were asked to consider.

"It's never easy to make this kind of decision," said Robin Lorraine Potts, the jury forewoman. "In this case, the facts were clear and the evidence spoke for itself, and I think justice was served."

On Thursday, the jury went home torn between first-degree and second-degree murder, an offense that would have brought a lesser sentence, juror Ronald Fields said.

"We basically had a feeling about both the victim and the defendant, Todd Boggess," Fields said. "We took a look at what both sides wanted us to, but it was a matter of right and wrong, and we felt that Todd Boggess was rational in his thinking."

Boggess was promptly sentenced to life without parole -- the only possible sentence under the circumstances -- and sent back to Central Prison in Raleigh.

Appeal possible

Defense lawyers reserved Boggess' right to appeal but did not discuss the grounds that would be pursued.

Boggess did not address the court.

Sharlene Pence did.

"There have been two tragedies," she told Judge Rand. "My son lost his life as well as Todd Boggess. My heart really goes out to him for having to spend the rest of his life in prison, but I do believe he has to be punished for what he did to Danny."

As she waited for an opportunity to talk with jurors one on one, Pence dug through the cart filled with evidence used to convict Boggess. She dug past the broken board and rock that had been used in the bludgeoning and pulled out the shoes her son had worn on the last day of his life.

She shook with sobs.

Minutes later, she spoke about one emotion that she would not let consume her.

"A lot of people said, 'You should be angry,' " Pence said. "But anger's just not my nature.

"It's so sad that someone is going to spend the rest of their life in prison, but it was justice for Danny."

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