Joseph McEnroe was convicted of all counts Wednesday in his first-degree murder trial in the deaths of six members of his girlfriend's Washington state family on Christmas Eve 2007.
McEnroe faces life in prison or the death penalty when he is sentenced next week. A Seattle jury needed less than two days to find him guilty of aggravated first-degree murder for shot and killed Michele Anderson's parents, brother, sister-in-law, 5-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew.
Anderson is also charged and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors say she has admitted her involvement in the murders in the town of Carnation, 20 miles east of Seattle, which they said were the result of her family's having slighted her.
McEnroe's lawyers argued that he was under the control of Anderson. "She would snap at him like he couldn't do anything right. She would yell at him. And Joe would take it," defense attorney Leo Hamaji told jurors. "You never heard anyone else say any differently."
IN-DEPTH
SOCIAL
— M. Alex Johnson
