A jury on Monday, Aug. 24, convicted Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar of first-degree murder for ambushing and killing Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer at a Palmdale traffic light in September 2023.

Jurors deliberated roughly two and a half hours before returning the verdict in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom where Sheriff Robert Luna and District Attorney Nathan Hochman sat with Clinkunbroomer's family, according to the LA County District Attorney's Office.

The panel found true three special-circumstance allegations: murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle. It also confirmed Salazar, 32, personally used a .22-caliber revolver.

The conviction sets up a sanity phase scheduled to begin Friday, Aug. 28, in Department 101 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. That proceeding will decide whether Salazar goes to state prison, where he faces a possible life sentence, or to a state hospital for psychiatric treatment.

The ambush

Around 6 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2023, Clinkunbroomer left the Palmdale Sheriff's Station in a marked patrol SUV. Salazar followed. Less than a block away, as the 30-year-old deputy waited at a red light on Sierra Highway, Salazar pulled alongside and shot him in the back of the head, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Clinkunbroomer was rushed to Antelope Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. A forensic pathologist testified during trial that the deputy would have had to have been right outside an emergency room to survive the wound.

Clinkunbroomer had proposed to his fiancée, Brittany Lindsey, four days earlier. He was a third-generation member of the Sheriff's Department whose goal was to become a detective.

How the case broke

Investigators used surveillance footage to identify a vehicle believed to be a Toyota Corolla. A motorist who had been aggressively confronted by a driver about seven minutes before the shooting contacted authorities with a photograph of the vehicle's license plate. That motorist later identified Salazar in court.

Two days after the killing, deputies arrested Salazar at his Palmdale home after a standoff and recovered a .22-caliber revolver.

What prosecutors alleged

Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian told jurors in his rebuttal closing argument that Salazar "was lying in wait to kill a police officer, any police officer … He waited for an opportune time to act," according to Spectrum News' coverage of the verdict.

Prosecutors alleged that while jailed, Salazar told undercover operatives in a secretly recorded conversation that he had wanted to kill a police officer for years and described following officers and playing music to prepare himself. He also attended a candlelight vigil at the Palmdale station the night after the killing, prosecutors said.

Prosecutor Michael Blake told jurors Salazar initially followed a sheriff's sergeant who pulled into the station, then turned his attention to Clinkunbroomer and made a U-turn to follow him. Blake said paper targets recovered from Salazar's home showed he had "obviously practiced" shooting at the head.

The insanity defense

Salazar entered a dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. Defense attorney George Rosenstock said in a statement that it was not disputed his client shot Clinkunbroomer. "The more difficult question of his legal sanity at the time of the offense will now be before the jury," Rosenstock said.

During the sanity phase, the defense plans to call three mental health professionals and family members to testify about Salazar's psychiatric history. Salazar's mother told the Times in 2023 that her son heard voices telling him to kill himself and was twice hospitalized.

Brad Gage, the attorney representing Clinkunbroomer's family, told Fox News Digital that the conviction provides "some solace" to the family. "As far as we know, there was no reason," Gage said. "It was just execution of a police officer."