A Philadelphia man has been convicted of murder in a 2022 double homicide outside of a Reading convenience store.
Following a three-day trial, a Berks County jury on Thursday found Nyjee Jefferson, 30, guilty of first- and third-degree murder. He is scheduled to be sentenced in February.
Jefferson was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Jose Ventura-Jimenez, and of third-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Alejandro Drullar.
The teenagers were shot and killed outside of a convenience store in northwest Reading just after sunrise on Feb. 20, 2022.
According to police:
Jefferson got into an altercation with the teens inside a convenience store at Schuylkill Avenue and West Greenwich Street at about 7 a.m.
The fight spilled into the parking lot, where Jefferson shot both teens.
Ventura was shot seven times, and Drullar was shot once.
About two hours after the killings Jefferson was captured by security footage checking himself into a Philadelphia hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound. He was arrested a few days later.
The killings came amid a rash of violence in the city during which seven people were killed in a five-week span.