A jury in Orange County has found Bessman Okafor guilty in his trial for the 2012 murder of Alex Zaldivar, a 19-year-old man who was scheduled to testify against him in court the next day.

Okafor was also convicted Wednesday of armed robbery and two counts of attempted murder for shooting Zaldivar's roommates, Remington and Brienna Campos. The siblings survived the attack, which happened nearly three years ago, and both testified against Okafor in this trial.

It took the jury eight hours over two days to reach a verdict.

The trial now moves to the penalty phase, in which the jury must decide if Okafor should receive the death penalty for Zaldivar's murder.


Alex Zaldivar would have turned 22 on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, the same day Bessman Okafor was convicted of his murder.

Rafael Zaldivar, Alex's father, said he planned to go to his son's grave to celebrate what would have been his son's 22nd birthday — and to celebrate the guilty verdict for his son's killer.

"He needs to die," Rafael Zaldivar said of Okafor. "He needs to forfeit his life. He took my son's life. He needs to be gone — completely gone — and I want him to suffer."

Rafael Zaldivar clung to a photo of his son every day in court as he sat only a few feet away from Okafor and listened to emotional witness testimony and graphic details from detectives and a medical examiner about the September 2012 attack in Ocoee.


Alex Zaldivar's parents react to Okafor's guilty verdict.

Prosecutors said Okafor broke into the home and shot Zaldivar and his two roommates in the head to stop them from testifying against him in court the next day in a previous home invasion in May 2012. Zaldivar died instantly.

The shootings delayed the trial, and Okafor and an accomplice, Nolan Bernard, were found guilty in 2012 of burglary, assault with firearm, robbery with a firearm and aggravated assault. Both were given five concurrent life sentences.


Brienna Campos reacts to Okafor's guilty verdict. She and her brother were also shot by Okafor, but survived the attack.

Family and friends, including Brienna and Remington Campos, cried together Wednesday as a court clerk read the jury's guilty verdict. The two surviving victims relived the night they almost died as each took the witness stand last week.

Okafor's defense claimed he was not in the area the night of the attack, but was on home confinement. Okafor had been ordered to wear a GPS tracking device while he awaited his home invasion trial.

But prosecutors presented evidence from his Internet searches, text messages, surveillance video and testimony from his convicted accomplices in the shootings. Donnell Godfrey and Emmaneul Wallace were both sentenced to life in prison. Only Okafor faces the death penalty for firing the shot that killed Zaldivar.

"All the evidence — the videos, the phone calls and all that corroborated with it — we knew the outcome had to be guilty," Brienna Canpos said.

But the pain for Zaldivar's family and the Campos siblings isn't over yet. They all must prepare to go back to court to testifyin the penalty phase, which begins Thursday at 9 a.m.

Rafael Zaldivar is expected to speak before the judge and jury about his wish that Okafor be executed for murdering his son.

"Peace of mind knowing that we can put Bessman to death, as well and give him the fear we felt," Brienna Campos said.

The jury may also possibly hear from Okafor's parents, who were seen in the courtroom Tuesday.

Okafor's mother, Catalina Ruffin-Sinclair, served jail time in 2013 for witness tampering after investigators said she tried to pay off the two surviving shooting victims.