Defendants Found Guilty of Brazil Activist’s Murder : Rain forest: A rancher and his son are convicted of killing environmentalist Chico Mendes.

A cattle rancher and his son were found guilty Saturday of first-degree murder for the killing of Chico Mendes, a fierce defender of the Amazon rain forest. The defendants were each sentenced to 19 years in prison.

The seven-member jury decided that Darly Alves da Silva, now 54, planned the 1988 shotgun killing and that his 23-year-old son, Darci Alves Pereira, pulled the trigger.

The trial in this Amazon River town 2,650 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro opened Wednesday with the surprise confession of the son. His father had fought the charges.

Judge Adair Longhini and the jurors remained behind closed doors for more than three hours late Saturday before returning with the verdict.

The decision was applauded by scores of residents and family members of Mendes who jammed the tiny wooden courthouse.

Earlier, prosecutors had demanded the maximum 30-year sentence for the two defendants, saying they had “stained the forest with (Mendes’) blood.”

The trial has caused a sensation in this nation of 150 million, where Mendes--who would have been 46 on Saturday--is recalled as an ecological martyr who died defending the vast Amazon rain forest from slash-and-burn destruction by ranchers and farmers.

Prosecutor Marcio Thomaz Bastos told jurors that a guilty verdict would end an “atmosphere of terror” in the region, where rich landowners often use hired gunmen to eliminate their opponents.

In a three-hour rebuttal, defense attorney Ruben Lopes Torres said the son was so perturbed by the mounting legal pressure Mendes was applying against his father that he was incited to murder.

Mendes in 1988 led local rubber tappers and their families to stand in front of bulldozers ready to clear virgin forest owned by the father.