Guilty verdict in Carlson killing

SANDPOINT — A California jury found a man guilty Thursday of the first-degree murder of Dalene Carlson, a former Bonner County resident.

The Stockton Record reports that jurors deliberated for more than two days before finding Jason Ross Gilley guilty of Carlson’s premeditated slaying. The jury in San Joaquin County also found enhancements of kidnapping and discharging a firearm.

Gilley, 26, was accused of raping, kidnapping and killing Carlson, a 23-year-old who was last seen at a Stockton grocery store in August 2011. Carlson’s remains were discovered in a cornfield in Escalon, Calif., two months after her disappearance.

Prosecutors argued that Gilley killed Carlson to keep her from reporting that he raped her after drinking together. A cloud of suspicion formed over Gilley due to conflicting accounts he gave to investigators about his interactions with Carlson immediately prior to her disappearance.

The defense maintained that Gilley was innocent and gave various accounts to investigators out of fear that he would be wrongly accused of having a hand in her disappearance because he was the last person to be seen with her. Moreover, Gilley told detectives that his sexual encounter with Carlson was consensual.

A sentencing hearing date is pending. Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty against Gilley.

Carlson relocated from Idaho to California to enroll in school and find work, according to published news accounts of the case.