Double-murderer Ulisses Rodriguez was convicted today of all charges, including a special circumstance allegation that could put him in prison for life without parole.

The jury, after deliberating for nearly two full days, found the 27-year-old Chico man guilty of two counts of first degree murder, making criminal threats and arson. Jurors also found true the allegations that Rodriguez personally discharged a firearm when he killed Tiffany Ellebrecht and Jeremy Kuemmel and personally used a firearm when he threatened witness John Doe.

Also, the jury found true the special-circumstance charge of having multiple victims, meaning he could be sentenced to life without parole.

As usual, the jury fled the courthouse immediately after the verdicts were read. The jury foreman refused to comment.

Rodriguez, as he has throughout the trial, sat stiffly and looked straight ahead as the guilty verdicts came down, one after another.

His parents, who live in Chico but have been here throughout the trial, cried and held hands. But members of the victims’ families were relieved and elated.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorneys Luke Bernthal and Trent Timm. Andrea Sullivan represented Rodriguez.

“I appreciate the jury’s service,” Bernthal said, adding that this had been a hard trial for jurors.

Not only did the jury hear gruesome testimony, but they were shown photos of the incinerated corpses of Ellebrecht, 31, and Kuemmel, 32, whose bodies were set on fire after Rodriguez shot them.

The key witnesses, John Doe and Chano Sanchez, testified through Spanish interpreters. Although their accounts differed in some respects, both said Rodriguez said “I killed them” and they needed to help him with the bodies.

Ellebrecht and Kuemmel had been working for Rodriguez at a marijuana grow in the China Creek area of Southern Humboldt. Rodriguez leased or rented the land from David Wilks and his sister, who had decided they were finished with the agreement.

Witness John Doe testified Rodriguez told him Kuemmel had stolen some plants from him, and he had run him off the property and warned him not to come back. Unfortunately he and Ellebrecht did return, and each were shot numerous times.

Afterward, their bodies were placed in the back of Kuemmel’s Ford Expedition, which was parked in a turnout on Briceland Road and set on fire.

John Doe was the first to come forward and report what happened, saying Rodriguez forced him to chain the bodies and drag them into the back of the Expedition.

Defense attorney Sullivan argued the case was not about marijuana but meth. She said Doe had been selling the drug to Kuemmel and Ellebrecht and killed them when they didn’t pay up. The burning Expedition with the bodies inside was there “to send a message,” Sullivan said.

Autopsies showed the murdered couple had high levels of methamphetamine in their bodies.

“They were another homeless couple with a drug problem,” Bernthal said during his closing argument.