COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A jury has convicted a Colorado Springs man in a 2018 double-slaying in which a former Atchison, Kansas man and Parker, Colorado woman were shot and left in a burning car in a scheme to steal marijuana.

The panel on Friday found Nashid Rayon Rivers guilty of of first-degree murder in the April  2018 killings of 20-year-old Marcus Denton and 21-year-old Serena Garcia in western Colorado Springs.  

 Rivers also was convicted of aggravated robbery, tampering with human bodies and other counts.

 Fourth Judicial District Judge Frances Johnson imposed an automatic penalty of life in prison without parole. Rivers told the judge he was innocent.

Jurors returned their verdict after more than two days of deliberation, after a trial that lasted about two weeks.  

Co-defendant, 22-year-old Marquis Hazard,  is also charged with first-degree murder under the complicity theory, accused of helping to plot and cover up the robbery. His trial is scheduled for September.