TALLADEGA COUNTY, Alabama – A 24-year-old sovereign citizen was convicted of murder this week in Talladega County circuit court, court records show.

Christopher Isaac Surles was tried before Circuit Judge Bo Hollingsworth in the July 2012 death of 19-year-old Matthew Paul Howie.

The jury deliberated for a little more than half an hour before delivering a guilty verdict, The Daily Home reported. Surles will remain in jail on a $500,000 bond until his Sept. 9 sentencing, records show.

Assistant Talladega County District Attorney Christina Kilgore prosecuted the case. Kilgore's opening statements and witness testimony throughout the trial gave an account of the events leading up to the discovery of Howie's body, according to The Daily Home.

Surles, Howie and another man did drugs together and committed various crimes in July 2012. Around 5:45 a.m. July 12, they robbed a man in his car at the ATM at BB&T Bank in Oxford. A stolen debit card was used at an Oxford gas station minutes later.

Christopher Isaac Surles is on trial for murder in the July 2012 death of Matthew Paul Howie. (Talladega County Jail)

When the men learned they had been named in warrants, they switched the car they were driving. Kilgore said that Surles then promised Howie more drugs before shooting him several times with a stolen gun. Howie's body was found on July 13 in a wooded area of Talladega County.

Surles fled Alabama and was captured in a Walmart parking lot in Tennessee several days later. He was found asleep at the wheel of Howie's 1992 Buick Park Avenue with a black handgun in his lap and blood on his shoes, according to The Columbia Daily Herald.

He has remained in jail since his arrest. In June of this year, Surles was charged with promoting prison contraband when he was found in possession of "a metal shank and/or sharp object, which may have been useful for escape," court records show.

Surles, who represented himself in the case, is among Alabama's hundreds of sovereign citizens, a group of people who believe they can decide which laws to follow and which to ignore. They also believe the federal government is illegitimate.

On Monday, Surles asked no questions of potential jurors, did not address the facts of the case during his opening statements, and did not cross-examine the witnesses for the prosecution, The Daily Home reported. Instead, he filed a motion in open court asking the judge to recuse himself and for the entire jury to be dismissed.

"I, Christopher Surles, In Proper Persona, do not give consent to the illegal/malicious trial, initiated and conducted by the Circuit Court of Talladega County, AL," the document states.