The second of three men accused of killing a police officer and wounding his partner during a routine traffic stop was convicted Friday of aggravated murder and attempted murder, days after his co-defendant was acquitted on those charges.

After deliberating two days, jurors convicted Dexter Bostic on those counts and on three counts of criminal weapons possession. He is facing life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Feb. 22.

Prosecutors argued Bostic and his two partners acted as a team to shoot Officer Russel Timoshenko and now-Detective Herman Yan because they were caught with a stolen SUV and with illegal weapons in the vehicle. Prosecutors said Bostic shot and killed Timoshenko, Robert Ellis simultaneously hit Yan, and Lee Woods was the driver.

Three separate juries heard the case because the men made statements implicating each other.

Ellis dodged a murder conviction Wednesday but was convicted on the weapons possession charges. Woods’ jury is still deliberating.

“I hope this just verdict brings some measure of peace to the Timoshenko family,” New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Bostic sat in the front passenger’s seat of the stolen sport utility vehicle and shot 23-year-old Timoshenko twice in the face after he approached.

He “waited, waited until Officer Timoshenko was so close that there would be no mistake, no chance for him to miss. He fired the gun twice into the unsuspecting officer’s face,” prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi said during the case.

Timoshenko was hit twice in the face. Yan was shot in the chest as he approached the other side of the SUV. His bullet-resistant vest saved his life.

The verdict provided a turnabout for the Timoshenko family, outraged over Ellis’ acquittal on the murder charges. Ellis now faces five to fifteen years in prison — far less than the life in prison without parole that he could have received for murder.

(Source: WCBSTV / AP)