[UPDATE BELOW] After two and a half days of deliberation, a jury has found the so-called "Cannibal Cop," New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, 28, guilty on both counts. Valle faces up to life in prison for conspiring to kidnap, as well as a charge of improperly accessing a law enforcement database to gather personal information about potential targets. According to Lauren Johnston at the Daily News, Valle's hands were shaking in the courtroom as the jury prepared to read the verdict.

Valle was found guilty of elaborately plotting with others he met on fetish websites to abduct, torture and eat women, including his own wife, who discovered the conspiracy on his computer and ran out of the house with their daughter wearing just the clothes on her back. His lawyers, who wrapped up their defense in a single day and did not allow Valle to testify in his defense, had argued that all of this was just a sick fantasy that Valle never intended to act upon. Apparently the jury didn't buy it.

We'll update as more information comes in (jurors are encouraged to pitch us their "Confessions of a Cannibal Cop Juror" feature stories here!)



Update 12:40 p.m. NBC New York reports that Valle bowed his head and looked teary-eyed when the verdict was announced. (His lawyer, Julia Gatto, told reporters it was "devastating.") And U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara issued this statement: