MIAMI, Florida — A jury has decided that John Couey is guilty of in murder of Jessica Lunsford.

Couey is convicted of kidnapping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

The jury reached its verdict just a few hours after getting the case. Closing statements were delivered this morning.

John Couey has been found guilty on the following charges:

• Murder in the first degree
• Burglary
• Kidnapping
• Sexual battery on a child under 12

Couey faces a possible sentence of death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole. The jury will now decide on a sentence beginning next Tuesday.

Prosecutors cited overwhelming physical evidence and Couey's own admissions about committing the crime as decisive reasons to convict him in Jessica's death.

Couey has a prior record as a sex offender. He was arrested in March 2005 in Georgia during a massive search for Jessica. The girl had disappeared from her bedroom about 150 yards from the central Florida trailer where Couey had been living the night of February 23rd that year.

Jessica's killing prompted Florida and a number of other states to pass new laws to crack down on sex offenders and improve tracking of them, including creation of a new US Justice Department database.

Authorities did not know that Couey was living near the Lunsford home even though he was required to tell them he had moved.