Ronald Salazar, found guilty Tuesday of raping and slicing the throat of his 11-year-old sister, did not flinch when the murder verdict was read.

Nor did he flinch when Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer, after a long pause, meted out the sentence: two consecutive life terms.

``Mr. Salazar, I sit here grasping for the right words to say to you,'' Venzer said, shaking her head. ``The brutal and senseless nature of his crime is leaving me speechless.''

After two hours of deliberations, the 12-person jury convicted Salazar, now 19, of first-degree murder and sexual battery of a victim under 12.

The murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole. The rape conviction carries a term of up to life in prison. Under state law, that means Salazar likely will die in custody.

``He didn't need to rape his sister, but he did, and he should be punished accordingly,'' Miami-Dade prosecutor Reid Rubin said of the second life sentence.

The verdict and swift sentencing capped a graphic, week-long trial that focused on whether Salazar was insane when he killed Marina Estefani Salazar in their South Miami Heights home in July 2005.

Their parents, Samuel and Nuvia Salazar, came to the United States from El Salvador in 1991 but left their son with his grandmother because he was too young to make the dangerous overland crossing. Ronald Salazar did not join them until more than a decade later.

Once in Miami, Salazar came to resent and hate his parents and U.S.-born siblings.

``He had a chip on his shoulder,'' Rubin said during Tuesday's closing arguments. ``He became increasingly frustrated. Why did he kill her? He hated her. He hated her because she teased him. He hated her because she disrespected him. She was the perfect target.''

After raping and strangling his sister in her bed, he used a kitchen knife to ``saw her throat open from ear to ear,'' Rubin said.

With ample DNA evidence and a chilling videotaped confession, Rubin and co-prosecutor Marie Mato had an overwhelming case. They could not seek the death penalty because Salazar was a minor at the time of the slaying.

The defense did not dispute that Salazar killed his sister. Instead, attorney Israel Encinosa claimed Salazar was insane, having suffered a mental breakdown rooted in his parental abandonment in El Salvador.

But the defense was a longshot.

Salazar had no prolonged history of diagnosed mental illness. He had talked openly about wanting to kill his sister and other family members. His sister had even written two letters to her parents expressing how afraid she was of him.

As proof that he knew right from wrong -- a key element in insanity cases -- prosecutors pointed out that Salazar wiped the knife clean, returned it to its kitchen drawer and concocted a cover story about two men storming the house to kill the girl.

Encinosa's most compelling storyline was that Salazar, after talking about suicide, was briefly hospitalized for a mental health evaluation two weeks before the slaying.

Jurors were not convinced.

In the end, Salazar was not shocked by the verdict, his lawyer said. ``He was anticipating it,'' he said.

Nor did the verdict surprise the few people in the courtroom -- a few journalists and two college students. Family members did not attend because they could not bear to relive their tragedy, prosecutor Rubin said.

``The Salazars are good and decent people,'' he said. ``They can't get past the fact that he raped and murdered their daughter.''

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