Fort Riley ? A military jury found an Army sergeant guilty Friday of premeditated murder for the shootings of two fellow soldiers last year.

Sgt. Aaron Stanley, 23, of Bismarck, N.D., faces a sentence of life in prison. An eight-member court martial panel began hearing testimony in the sentencing phase after returning the verdict. Closing statements were to be presented this morning, then the panel will determine if Stanley will ever be eligible for parole.

Stanley was convicted of killing Staff Sgt. Matthew Werner, 30, of Oxnard, Calif., and Spc. Christopher D. Hymer, 23, of Nevada, Mo., in September at Stanley’s farmhouse in Clay Center, about 30 miles west of Fort Riley.

After the verdict, jurors heard testimony from victims’ family members and from family and friends of Stanley.

Stanley also took the stand to read an apology he had handwritten on a piece of notebook paper.

“I’m so sorry,” he said in his apology to the victims’ families. “I hope that you will find it in your hearts to forgive me and I hope that this brings peace.”

He then went on to apologize to the Army and to the members of his unit.

“I brought discredit to this uniform by actions. My mistakes are my own,” he said before he began sobbing so heavily that his defense attorneys had to finish reading the statement.

Stanley also started crying earlier when Caleigh Nichols, Hymer’s sister, told jurors that her brother was a good father to his 5-year-old daughter.

“They liked to spend time together,” Nichols said. “That’s what daddies do.”

Werner’s wife, Kristen, said their 3-year-old son asks about his father every day.

“His father is his angel in heaven, is what we say,” she testified.

During his court-martial, Stanley argued he acted in self-defense, but prosecutors said he shot the two men to protect a drug trafficking operation, believing the victims to be informants for Fort Riley police.

Stanley and another soldier, Sgt. Eric Colvin, 23, of Papillion, Neb., had acknowledged manufacturing methamphetamines and growing marijuana at Stanley’s remote farmhouse.

Stanley pleaded guilty at the start of his court martial to drug use, drug possession, being absent without leave and adultery. He faces up to 37 years in prison on those charges.

The jurors found Stanley not guilty on a final charge of conspiracy to commit murder, however.

The jury deliberated less than three hours. As the verdict was read, Stanley stood and wiped tears from his eyes. Sitting behind him in the first row of spectator seating, his mother shook, and other family members were visibly upset.

All four soldiers were part of the 1st Battalion of the 41st Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division based at Fort Riley. Both Stanley and Colvin were with Bravo Company and had served in Iraq.

During closing arguments, Capt. Christy Schverak, one of the Army prosecutors, said Stanley’s claim of self-defense was unsubstantiated, noting Stanley left his duties at the Army post to meet with the two soldiers he killed.

“He left a place of safety to go to a mutual fight,” she said.

Capt. Anita Robbins, the lead defense attorney, pointed to changes in accounts given by Colvin, a key prosecution witness, who testified under a plea agreement.

Post officials haven’t determined whether Colvin also will face a court martial, nor have they disclosed details of his plea agreement.

“He calls it justice,” Robbins said, referring to Colvin. “We call it bought and paid for by the government.”

Prosecutors contend Stanley lay in wait for the victims, believing they would reveal the drug manufacturing operation at the secluded rural residence. Stanley said Thursday he shot the other soldiers to protect himself and Colvin.

Werner had accused Stanley of having an affair with Werner’s wife and, Stanley said, had threatened to “cut a chunk out” of his face. The adultery charges to which Stanley pleaded guilty did not involve Werner’s wife, however.

Stanley said he shot Werner after finding him and Colvin wrestling in the kitchen, with Werner trying to stab Colvin with a big kitchen knife.

But Colvin testified he watched Stanley stand over the two victims and gun them down.