The first two juries to hear the case deadlocked. The first jury split 9-3 in April 2008 in favor of guilt and the second jury split 11-1 last February, with the majority voting in favor of convicting him in the Feb. 22, 2000, slaying of Antelope Valley College student Michelle O'Keefe. Both of those trials were held in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
The latest panel -- which heard the case at the Lancaster courthouse -- got the case against Jennings on Nov. 24, with Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake calling the panel the "hardest working jury I've ever encountered."
The 35-year-old defendant, who had served in the Iraq war during a stint with the National Guard, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 22. He is facing a maximum 40-year-to-life term, according to the prosecutor.
Jennings' attorney could not be reached for immediate comment on the verdict.
The prosecutor said Jennings murdered O'Keefe after she returned to her bright blue Ford Mustang, which she had left at the lot so she could carpool with a friend to a Kid Rock video shoot in Los Angeles, where they worked as paid extras.
"The mistake he made was assuming that she was a prostitute," Blake told jurors in Jennings' second trial. "Her fatal mistake in this interaction was standing up for herself."
Defense attorney M. David Houchin maintained that there was no direct or physical evidence linking his client to the slaying.
He asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to dismiss the murder charge following the second jury's deadlock, but that request was denied. The judge said then that the third trial would "undoubtedly be the final trial."
