Berenice Juarez was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder in the 2010 stabbing death of her mother’s boyfriend in Delray Beach.

The jury deliberated five hours to reach its verdict. Juarez, 18, immediately was sentenced by Circuit Judge Karen Miller to life in prison.

She will be one of Florida’s youngest prison inmates serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, according to the Department of Corrections.

The only other 18-year-old woman serving life for murder is Morgan Leppert of Putnam County who, at 15, stabbed, stomped and suffocated a man in 2008 so she could steal his truck and run away with her 22-year-old boyfriend.

Florida prisons have 58 women locked up for manslaughter, murder or attempted murder committed at age 17 or younger, including two who committed second-degree murders at the age of 13.

On Thursday, Juarez slumped forward, with her head in her hands, but did not cry as she heard the verdict. Her older brothers and mother showed no emotion as they sat just a few feet behind her. Their faces reflected numbness; they seemed resigned.

But Donis Ramos, daughter of victim Gildardo Ramos Paz, asked to speak. Taking deep breaths, she told Juarez that she hopes she finds forgiveness.

“I know this won’t bring my dad back, nor will it return those happy days I spent by his side, but I feel satisfied,” she said. “He wasn’t just my dad, he was my best friend. He was always by my side whenever I needed him.”

Had Juarez gotten to know Paz, Ramos said, she would have learned he was a “marvelous person.”

“I think she would have had a different image of him,” Ramos said tearfully, “I want to tell her that this is all ugly, and may God forgive her.”

Juarez’s family declined to comment. Defense Attorney Ronald Chapman said he would appeal the verdict.

Several jurors declined to comment, but juror Linda Berger called the deliberation process “difficult.”

Then 16, Juarez confessed the same day to fatally stabbing Paz in the heart in a Delray Beach parking lot at Congress Avenue and Linton Boulevard on Feb. 17, 2010.

That morning, she waited with her brother, Francisco Juarez, at a PalmTran bus stop. He continued on to school while she stayed behind. Surveillance video from the bus shows Paz’s gold SUV in the background and Juarez standing nearby in her white, hooded shirt moments before she killed him.

That shirt, with Paz’s blood stains, was submitted into evidence.

Juarez lured Paz to the parking lot by pretending to be her mother, Edith Martinez, and texting him to meet her at 6:40 a.m. that day. The teen disapproved of their romantic relationship.

Testifying Wednesday, Juarez said she didn’t want to see Paz dead, but stabbed him in a fit of emotion when she tried to confront him.

She approached his car, knocked on the window and asked for directions to the turnpike before slicing through his hand and thumb and plunging the folding knife she had stolen a week prior into his heart.

“I wanted to show him, ‘Oh, she’s serious about this.’ Just scare him off,” Juarez said. “When he rolled down the window, my emotions got the best of me; my mind was racing.”

The teen then walked away, wiped Paz’s blood from the blade onto her sock, ditched the knife in a trash can and continued on to school.

Her two older brothers testified that Juarez had said she was going to kill Paz, but they thought she was joking.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

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