A jury found Antolin Garcia-Torres guilty of the killing and kidnapping of Sierra LaMar in 2012. Morgan Hills is about 70 miles (116 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
Police arrested Garcia-Torres, 26, two months later after investigators found his DNA - taken during a previous assault arrest - in her handbag.
The jurors could recommend the death penalty for Garcia-Torres.
Doug Tollis, right, and Autumn Ayres, who volunteered in the search for Sierra LaMar embrace outside of the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice Tuesday, May 9, 2017, in San Jose, Calif. He is accused of the kidnapping and murder of Sierra Lamar in Morgan Hill, Calif.
After deliberating less than two days, a Santa Clara County Superior Court jury Tuesday found Antolin Garcia-Torres guilty of the first degree murder and kidnapping of Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar who was abducted as she was walking to catch a bus to school in 2012. This was the intersection where LaMar missed her bus to Sobrato High School.
Without her body, prosecutors David Boyd and Dana Veazey faced an extra hurdle in getting a murder conviction.
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"Nothing will take away the pain and sorrow we experience every day and for the rest of our lives", Sierra's mother, Marlene, said outside the courtroom. "It gives us peace to know this will not happen to another family". The jury found "special circumstances" in the first-degree murder that Garcia-Torres killed Sierra in the commission of a kidnapping, making him eligible for the death penalty.
In closing arguments last week, Garcia-Torres's defense attorney Alfonso Lopez attempted a theatrical gesture, tossing balls into what he called his "shame bucket" as he counted up the pieces of missing evidence the prosecution could not produce, including Sierra's remains. In addition to that, a rope was also found in the trunk that the prosecution said had Sierra's hair.
Sierra has not been seen or heard from since March 16, 2012, and Garcia-Torres was arrested on May 21, 2012, after investigators found his DNA on her jeans, which were recovered near where she went missing outside of Morgan Hill.
Police arrested Garcia-Torres two months after she disappeared by matching DNA he had submitted following a previous assault arrest to Sierra's trousers and purse. The search was finally suspended in 2015, but by then investigators had a mountain of physical and circumstantial evidence against Garcia-Torres, who has maintained his innocence despite making unusual and incriminating statements along the way.
Garcia-Torres lived about 7 miles (11.3 kilometers) from LaMar in a trailer he shared with his mother, girlfriend and young daughter. He previously worked at the supermarket where the three attempted abductions occurred.
"We obviously will never get Sierra back", Steve LaMar, her father, said of the guilty verdict.
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