<p>A man accused of raping and killing four young women in the Augusta area was convicted Friday of one of the murders and of attempting to kill a fifth victim.</p><p>A Superior Court jury found Reinaldo Rivera guilty on 14 counts in the fatal Sept. 4, 2000 attack on Fort Gordon soldier Sgt. Marni M. Glista, 21, and the Oct. 10, 2000 assault on Chrisilee Barton.</p><p>Prosecutors plans to seek the death penalty when the sentencing phase of the trial begins on Saturday. Defense attorneys Peter Johnson and Jacque Hawk, who had sought a verdict of guilty but mentally ill, were expected to try to persuade the jury to sentence Rivera to life in prison.</p><p>Rivera, 40, of North Augusta, S.C., also is accused of another slaying in Georgia and two deaths in Aiken County, S.C. Regardless of the sentence in the Glista case, District Attorney Danny Craig said he likely will pursue capital murder charges in Columbia County, where one of the victims, Tabitha Bosdell, was found.</p><p>Barton survived Riveras attack on her and gave information to investigators that led to his arrest.</p><p>In closing arguments, Craig told jurors that Rivera is not mentally ill, in the legal sense of being unable to tell right from wrong, but a psychopath who abducted his victims to savagely rape, sodomize and butcher them.</p><p>In testimony Wednesday, Rivera told jurors: Were trying to get everyone to accept the idea that I have a mental illness.</p><p>Weve got to figure out why I do the things that I do, he said.</p><p>Craig told jurors that Rivera wanted them to think these women were just falling all over themselves to get to him. He scoffed at Riveras claims that he had lured the women to secluded spots by pretending to be a photographer and asking them to model for him.</p><p>All lies! the prosecutor said.</p><p>Johnson argued that medical evidence showed that brain damage had rendered Rivera incapable of choosing the right and just things in life. He also repeated what Rivera had told the jurors: that doctors could study his mental illness and perhaps find a cure and prevention.</p><p>We want something good to come out of this, and thats why we talk of understanding, Johnson said.</p><p>In addition to the slaying of Bosdell, 18, Rivera is accused in the 1999 slayings of Melissa Dingess and Tiffaney Wilson, both 17, in Aiken County.</p>
