St. Joseph, Mo. ? Two Kansas City men were found guilty late Thursday of killing a St. Joseph couple in their bedroom after breaking into their home looking for a previous tenant, a suspected drug dealer.

Jurors, who were brought to Buchanan County from Boone County, deliberated about eight hours before convicting Terrell Dawson, 25, and Javonty Steward, 23, of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts armed criminal action and one count each of kidnapping and first-degree burglary.

The bodies of the victims, Danny Watson Jr., 31, and Dawn Thornton, 28, were found in April 2004 as her son from a previous relationship and a child she and Watson had together while in high school returned from an overnight stay with their grandparents. The couple had recently reunited.

Parents of the victims smiled as the verdicts were read, while Steward’s parents looked down and shook their heads.

The first-degree murder convictions carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the chance of probation or parole. On the other counts, jurors recommended that the men each receive two 99-year prison sentences for armed criminal action, 15 years for kidnapping and 15 years for burglary.

“There isn’t any joy,” Buchanan County Prosecuting Atty. Dwight Scroggins said in court after the verdict. “Nothing that has occurred here today has lessened the pain or the loss of the families.”

Prosecutors said the defendants broke down a door at the St. Joseph home where the two victims had lived for about six weeks, searched for money and then shot the couple. Police believe the assailants were looking for a suspected drug dealer who supposedly owed one of them $800.

The kidnapping charge stemmed from accusations that the men ambushed a car containing two men and a woman from St. Joseph in Kansas City. According to court records, the three had traveled to Kansas City to meet Dawson, an acquaintance they knew only as “Kiko.”

Police said one of the men, Deitrik Davis, was brought to St. Joseph to commit a robbery. While the men were in St. Joseph, police said the other man and a 17-year-old woman were taken to an abandoned house, where the woman was raped by 15 gang members over several hours.

During closing arguments, defense attorneys had argued the state’s case was based on little more than the testimony of Davis. Davis told the court he watched as the defendants placed a pillow over Thorton’s head and shot her before shooting Watson in the back.

“The story keeps changing,” said Horton Lance, Steward’s attorney, who argued his client was sleeping in his cousin’s bed in Kansas City the night of the killing. “There’s no consistency at all – and this is their star witness. The state has built their whole case on the testimony of this guy.”

Scroggins said physical evidence found at the scene, along with the testimony of other witnesses, corroborated his account.

Another defendant, Kenderal Rogers, a cousin of Steward, refused to testify against the men earlier this week. Ronald Holliday, an assistant Buchanan County prosecutor, told Rogers the plea agreement he had reached would be withdrawn and he would face first-degree murder charges.

In return for his testimony, Rogers was to have pleaded guilty to two second-degree murder charges, with the state recommending no more than 30 years on each count.

Rogers, Steward and Dawson also face charges in Jackson County in connection with the alleged kidnapping.