A former nurse in Minnesota has been found guilty of using Internet chats to encourage and advise two people to commit suicide.

Rice County District Court Judge Thomas Neuville today convicted William Melchert-Dinkel of two counts of assisting suicide in the 2005 death of Mark Drybrough of Coventry, England, and the 2008 death of Nadia Kajouji of Ottawa, Canada, Minnesota Public Radio reports. The judge found that Melchert-Dinkel intentionally encouraged and advised both.

Melchert-Dinkel, 48, of Faribault, Minn., had waived his right to a jury trial and agreed to the facts of the case.

MPN writes that Melchert-Dinkel's attorney argued that his client was exercising his free speech rights and could not be charged under Minnesota's assisted-suicide statute because the alleged victims were in other countries. He also said Minnesota's law was void for vagueness and that Kajouji and Drysbrough had already decided to kill themselves before talking to Melchert-Dinkel.

The judge disagreed.

"These arguments are irrelevant because predisposition of the person who commits suicide is not a defense" to the statute, Neuville wrote. "The predisposition of a suicide victim actually makes the victim more vulnerable to encouragement or advice, and their death more imminent and foreseeable."

Neuville said Melchert-Dinkel "never tried to discourage" the victims of committing suicide. "Rather, the facts indicate repeated and relentless encouragement by Defendant to complete the suicide," he wrote.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 4.