List Guilty of Murdering 5 Family Members in 1971 : Fugitive: The jury apparently dismisses the defense argument that a mental defect caused the shootings in New Jersey.

John Emil List, a churchgoing accountant who escaped capture for more than 17 years after killing five members of his family, was found guilty Thursday of five counts of first-degree murder.

After nine hours of deliberation, a jury in Elizabeth, N.J., apparently rejected List’s defense that a mental defect had caused him to shoot his wife, mother and three teen-age children in 1971.

As the jury read its verdict, List, 64, showed almost no emotion, sitting as impassively as he had throughout the trial.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1, and he could face life in prison, with no chance of parole for 15 years. Although New Jersey now has a death penalty, it was not in force when List killed his family.

List’s lawyer, Elijah J. Miller Jr., had argued that the former Sunday schoolteacher was beset by financial problems and concerned that his family was straying from the tenets of their Lutheran faith. By List’s twisted reasoning, Miller said, he saved his family’s souls by killing them.

“Give me a break,” prosecutor Eleanor Clark countered. “This was an ambush by a hideous angel of death.” The prosecution noted that List had planned the murders down to the smallest details.

“He did have a tough life,” jury foreman Ronald Fain said after the verdict. “As far as feeling sorry for him? Not with the actions that he took.”

The trial had brought out many new and startling details about the crime. The most dramatic piece of evidence was a five-page letter List had left for his minister, in which he tried to explain his reasons for killing his family.

He described his financial setbacks, and his concerns that his family would end up on welfare. List also expressed his distress over the fact that his wife was refusing to go to church, and his daughter was interested in acting.

“This was just too much,” he wrote. “At least I’m certain that all have gone to heaven now.”

The crime went undetected for almost a month, because of List’s careful preparations, which left the impression that the family was out of town. In that time, he vanished.

Although authorities had searched for List in all 50 states, South America and Europe, he managed to elude them until last June. He was caught after the Fox Television show “America’s Most Wanted” re-enacted the crime, and produced what turned out to be a startlingly accurate depiction of how List would look today.

The FBI received more than 200 telephone calls after that episode, and one led them to Richmond, Va., where they found List remarried and living a quiet life, very similar to the one he had left behind in Westfield.

List had taken the alias Robert P. Clark and remarried a woman who apparently was unaware of his past. He had originally fled to Colorado, and moved to Virginia after losing his job.

For many in Westfield, the affluent New Jersey suburb where the List family was murdered, the memory of the crime is still fresh.

James Moran, the retired police chief who said he spent years “chasing countless and I mean countless leads,” declared after the verdict: “I’m satisfied with the outcome.”

Moran had carried List’s FBI flyer in his pocket for more than 16 years, hoping that somehow he would come across someone who might have the right lead. When List was captured, Moran came out of retirement long enough to put the handcuffs on him for List’s extradition to New Jersey.