Man Guilty of Murdering College Student From Arlington

A Vermont man was convicted yesterday in the rape and murder of Arlington native Michelle Gardner-Quinn, a committed environmentalist whose disappearance attracted national attention from celebrities and a network of close friends.

Jurors in Rutland, Vt., found Brian R. Rooney guilty in the October 2006 slaying of Gardner-Quinn, 21, a University of Vermont student who had a chance encounter with Rooney when she borrowed his cellphone, according to Laurie Canty, manager for Rutland District and Family Court. Rooney, 37, a construction worker and father of three, faces a mandatory life prison term.

Gardner-Quinn, who grew up in North Arlington, disappeared from downtown Burlington, where she had been celebrating a friend's 21st birthday. She bumped into Rooney after she became separated from friends and her cellphone died, court documents said. Her body was found a week later, face-down and in a fetal position near a popular swimming hole. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.

Her disappearance triggered a well-publicized investigation. Friends used the popular social networking site Facebook.com to spread information about the case. Her commitment to the environment led singer Sheryl Crow, actress Meg Ryan and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, to appear in a YouTube video, holding a portrait of Gardner-Quinn and reciting parts of a class essay she had submitted.

After Gardner-Quinn's death, more than 400 people assembled at a memorial at H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program in Arlington, from which she graduated in 2003. A year after the slaying, University of Vermont students had a candlelight march and a memorial hike in her honor.

"I think justice has been served as much as it can be in a situation like this," Rachele Huennekens, a high school friend of Gardner-Quinn's, said after yesterday's verdict. "Michelle's murder is the saddest thing that's ever happened to me. She was a very beautiful person."

Huennekens is communications director for Michelle's Earth Foundation, an environmental group friends and relatives established after her death. Gardner-Quinn, who was a senior majoring in Latin American studies and environmental science, had attended five other colleges before transferring to Vermont. Friends have said her passion for nature and the environment grew from childhood walks in the woods near her home.

Family members, prosecutors and defense attorneys did not return calls late yesterday.

The 12-member jury convicted Rooney of aggravated murder after about five hours of deliberation following a one-week trial, Canty said. Authorities said semen taken from Gardner-Quinn's body matched Rooney's DNA, according to court documents.

Prosecutor Rosemary Gretkowski told jurors in closing arguments yesterday that the DNA match and other evidence established Rooney's guilt, the Associated Press reported. "The truth is that Michelle had the misfortune of bad timing: dead cellphone and uttering the innocent words 'Excuse me, sir, may I borrow your phone?' to the wrong stranger," Gretkowski said.

Defense attorney David Sleigh said that the DNA evidence was unreliable and that the absence of eyewitnesses or a murder weapon added up to reasonable doubt. "Their entire case is predicated upon two-tenths of a nanogram in a suspect source of DNA," he said.

The trial was moved from Burlington to Rutland -- about 70 miles away -- because of intense pretrial publicity.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.