Guilty of murder

Campos, wearing a white collared shirt beneath a light blue sweater, looked down as the verdicts were read.

Campos, now 20, was a 17-year-old Los Angeles resident when he accompanied alleged international drug smuggler Jorge "Chico" Hernandez and two other Southern California men to the Evergreen Ridge apartment complex in San Bruno on Jan. 11, 2002.

The prosecution theorizes that Hernandez brought Campos and alleged accomplices Alfredo Valenzuela and Lazaro Perez to the apartment to forcibly collect a drug-related debt from Vaca, an alleged cocaine dealer who bought his supply from Hernandez.

Vaca and three other men, Jose Alberto Munoz-Lopez, 21, Emilio Alba-Flores, 20, and Roberto Ramos-Guerra, 18, were found dead that evening in Vaca's apartment.

The victims died "a terrible death," prosecutor Al Giannini told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday. Three of the four victims were found with their hands bound behind their backs and bullets in their brains. Alba-Flores was not shot in the head but was shot several times, including in his back and buttocks, with different guns. At least four separate guns were used in the crimes.

Campos admitted shooting Alba-Flores, but said he did so in self-defense after the victim charged at him. Giannini claimed Campos shot three of the four victims, citing expert testimony that the .22-caliber bullets found in the body of Alba-Flores came from the same gun as those found in the heads of Vaca and Munoz-Lopez.

But regardless of who pulled the trigger, Campos is culpable four all four killings because they were committed during the attempted robbery and burglary, the jury found.

Under California's felony murder rule, any death occurring during the commission or attempt to commit specified felonies is considered murder in the first degree.

On Sept. 2, that rule helped convict Valenzuela of four counts of first-degree murder although the prosecution had no proof Valenzuela ever pulled a trigger in the crimes.

Hernandez and Perez fled to Mexico after the killings, according to the prosecution.

Hernandez was killed in Mexico earlier this year, Giannini said. Perez remains at large.

Campos returns to court for a sentencing hearing on Feb. 25 at 1:30 p.m.