ORLANDO -- Jorge and Maria Gough held each other and sobbed when a court clerk announced Wednesday night that the Miami-Dade teen who killed their 14-year-old son Jaime was guilty of first-degree murder.

Across the aisle, Michael Hernandez's mother also wept, knowing her son would spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Afterward, Jorge Gough said he has forgiven the killer and his parents, but he believes the jury made the right choice rejecting defense claims that Michael Hernandez was insane when he stabbed Jaime to death in 2004.

''He's just evil, not insane,'' Gough said. ``For four years we have been waiting for this verdict. It's been very painful. But there's justice.''

When the verdict was read, Hernandez, now 18, stared straight ahead.

His parents, Kathy and Manny Hernandez, declined to talk to the media afterward. Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum said they were too distraught.

''Kathy has worked as hard as any mother can work to get Michael help,'' he said. ``Now all he's facing is punishment.''

While the attorneys talked to the media outside the courtroom on the 23rd floor, the couple was shepherded to a back exit on the first floor of the courthouse.

Kathy Hernandez continued to cry as her husband, defense attorney Lori Butts, and other friends huddled around her. At one point the jurors filed by on their way to the parking garage. Hernandez began to sob loudly after they passed. Her friends held her up.

PHOTOS OF SON

Meanwhile, the Goughs were in an office with prosecutors. Maria Gough wanted to see -- for the first time -- at least one of the crime-scene photos taken of her slain child in the bathroom stall where he died. The jury had been shown the photos during the trial, but spectators had not see them.

''I need that for my healing,'' she said, choking back tears. ``I couldn't stay with my son. I needed to see it. But after I see what he has done to my son, it hurts real bad.''

The Goughs sat through the entire 10-day trial, often trying to stifle their tears.

''The worst part was hearing how my son went into the bathroom, like a lamb,'' Jorge Gough said after the case concluded. ``He didn't know.''

Hernandez told detectives who interviewed him the day of the slaying that he killed Jaime because he knew Jaime would do what he asked of him: follow him into the boys' room at Southwood Middle School and into a handicapped stall.

Hernandez faces a mandatory life sentence. He was also convicted of trying to kill another friend the day before he killed Jaime. The other boy refused to go in the bathroom stall with him.

In closing arguments earlier Wednesday, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Carin Kahgan pointed out that Hernandez planned Jaime's murder well in advance and went to great lengths to cover it up. She argued that showed he knew what he was doing and knew that it was wrong.

''We will ask you to hold him responsible for each drop of Jaime's blood spattered in that bathroom stall,'' she said.

FUNCTIONED TOO WELL

Kahgan presented one expert, a University of Miami psychiatrist, who said Hernandez's successful performance in school and lack of problems at home showed he was functioning too well to be legally insane.

Hammering on the issue of premeditation, Kahgan pointed out that Hernandez wore gloves to make sure he didn't leave fingerprints, donned a jacket and cap so he wouldn't leave DNA, and then made up a bizarre lie when detectives first questioned him.

''A stupid story? Maybe. Stupid doesn't mean he didn't do it,'' she said. ``And stupid doesn't mean insane.''

Defense attorney Rosenbaum presented three experts who testified that Hernandez stabbed and slashed Jaime more than 40 times because he had decided his lot in life was to become a serial killer. In the months leading up to the killing, Hernandez began repeating a series of bizarre rituals every night. The teen thought his strange behavior meant he was destined to become a serial killer.

Rosenbaum also urged the jurors to look carefully at Hernandez's own writings.

''It's quite evident from the written words in Michael's journal that he was delusional,'' Rosenbaum told the jury. ``He didn't know the consequences of what he was doing when he set out to kill everyone on Earth and in the space station.''

He harped on the fact that Hernandez was just 14 at the time.

''You heard he was talking to a penny and taking advice from his dog. That's crazy,'' he said, repeating the phrase over and over.

After 3 ½ hours of deliberation, however, the jurors disagreed. None of the six men and six women on the jury would talk to the media about their decision.

The case was moved to Orlando because too many potential jurors in Miami said they had made up their minds that Hernandez was guilty, even before they heard any evidence.

Hernandez is set to be sentenced in Miami on Nov. 7.

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