Michael Chia was convicted of murder in a California retrial 17 years after the murders of two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agents.
Special Agents Paul Seema and George Montoya were killed, and Special Agent Jose Martinez seriously wounded, in an ambush during a drug sting in 1988.
Chia was convicted by a federal grand jury in 1988 for the murders, and sentenced to two life sentences, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the appeals court verdict in 2003, and sent the case back down for retrial.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Darrell Mavis said, "I am very happy that this jury came to the same conclusion that a jury did in 1988. This jury found Mr. Chia guilty of the murder of two DEA special agents and the attempted murder of another."
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