Man Convicted of Kidnaping, Murdering Girl

A jury took about 2 1/2 hours Tuesday to convict a man of kidnaping and killing a teen-age girl who was repeatedly raped and buried alive as retribution for a $5,000-drug rip-off.

Orlando Hall, 24, is one of five men charged with murdering 16-year-old Lisa Rene, who was raped over two days and repeatedly beaten with a shovel before she was buried alive in a shallow grave near Pine Bluff, Ark.

In a chilling plea captured on tape during a 911 call to police on Sept. 24, 1994, Lisa screamed in terror and begged an operator for help as men claiming to be FBI agents broke into her apartment and dragged her away.

Prosecutors say the men had gone to the apartment in search of the girl’s two brothers, whom they had paid $5,000 for drugs that were not delivered. When the brothers were not there, they took the girl.

The federal court jury found Hall guilty of kidnaping resulting in death among other counts. He could receive the death penalty under the 1994 Crime Bill.