Ex-Football Standout Convicted in Shooting : Court: Leodes Van Buren, 19, of Newbury Park faces up to seven years in prison for firing into girlfriend’s home.

A Ventura County jury deliberated just two hours Thursday before convicting former Newbury Park football standout Leodes Van Buren of firing a gun into the home of his girlfriend.

Van Buren, 19, the state’s all-time leading pass receiver who was headed to the University of Colorado on a scholarship before the shooting, now could be sentenced to seven years in prison.

Acting Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark set sentencing for Aug. 25. Prosecutors say Van Buren faces a minimum sentence of six months in jail. But a defense attorney said that Clark could suspend any jail or prison term.

“He’s going to have to deal with a felony conviction,” Deputy Dist. Atty. James Grunert said. “I don’t know how many colleges are going to want felons on their team.”

Van Buren was shocked by the verdict.

“His statement to me was, ‘How could they believe I was guilty?’ ” said defense attorney John B. Miller. He said the athlete still expects to get a football scholarship.

“This conviction is not going to preclude Leodes from attending college, and a Division I college, “ Miller said.

Van Buren declined to comment.

Van Buren was charged with shooting into an inhabited dwelling after his girlfriend, Marcie James, 20, told authorities that he fired a bullet through the back door of her family’s home April 8.

Both James and Van Buren, who are now married, later denied that he fired the shot. They said instead that one of Van Buren’s acquaintances from South-Central Los Angeles was the culprit. Van Buren refused to identify the man, saying he feared retaliation.

But Miller said the defendant changed his mind after the verdict and now intends to “find that guy . . . no matter what risk he puts himself or his family through.”

Grunert and Miller agreed that the key evidence during the three-day trial were audiotapes recorded the day of the shooting. Van Buren and James both identified Van Buren as the triggerman. “That put everything into context,” the prosecutor said.

During his closing argument, Grunert contended that Van Buren decided to deny firing the gun a day after the incident in an effort to salvage his scholarship.

But Miller countered that the prosecutor had failed to prove Van Buren fired the shot, which broke a glass pane in the door but did not injure anyone.

Grunert told the jury that, on the day of the shooting, James had broken off her relationship with Van Buren after she discovered he was having an affair with a Westlake High School girl.

Van Buren went to the James house looking to “trash” his girlfriend’s car, Grunert said. But James had parked the car inside her garage, and she refused to let Van Buren inside the house.

“What he was trying to do was shoot the door handle so he could get in,” Grunert told the jury.

After the shooting, James dashed upstairs and phoned her mother at work, screaming into the receiver, “He shot the door! He shot the door!” according to the prosecutor. The mother asked who had shot the door. “Leodes,” James responded.

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Grunert discounted the contention that someone else fired the shot.

Of Van Buren and James, Grunert told the jury: “We’re dealing with two people who are young and involved in a romantic relationship. Emotions are running high and common sense is nonexistent.

“They knew their scholarship would be taken away, that their life at the University of Colorado was gone,” Grunert said.

Miller asked the jury to disregard confessions Van Buren made to a 911 dispatcher and a Sheriff’s Department detective shortly after the shooting. “The tape recordings that we have heard contain statements that are not under oath,” Miller noted.

He urged the jury to put stock in statements James made in court, where she testified that the gang member was the real shooter.

Van Buren did not testify in his own defense.