Teen guilty of raping, killing sister

MIAMI, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A teenage immigrant from El Salvador was sane when he raped and killed his 11-year-old sister four years ago, a Miami jury found Tuesday.

Jurors convicted Ronald Salazar, 19, after deliberating two hours, the Miami Herald reported. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and sexual battery.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer immediately imposed two consecutive life sentences as Salazar stood impassively.

Prosecutors said Salazar hated his parents and his younger sister, Marina Estefani Salazar. They said he was angry at his parents for leaving him with his grandparents in El Salvador when they moved to Florida almost 15 years ago. They brought him to the United States when he was 12.

Defense lawyers also attributed the killing to the decision to leave Salazar behind. They said being abandoned made him insane and told jurors he threatened suicide a few weeks before he raped his sister and cut her throat with a kitchen knife.