NEW YORK - A New York City police officer has been found guilty of plotting to kidnap, cook and eat women.
The verdict was delivered Tuesday morning in Manhattan.
A six-woman, six-man federal court jury announced the decision after deliberating for 16 hours over four days.
Officer Gilberto Valle did not testify.
The FBI arrested the 28-year-old officer last year based on a tip by his now-estranged wife.
Prosecutors said Valle plotted with others he met on fetish websites to abduct, torture and eat women he knew, including his wife.
The estranged wife of a police officer struggled to keep her composure Monday as she testified about discovering shocking online chats and other evidence on his computer showing he had discussed killing her and abducting, torturing and eating other women.
"I was going to be tied up by my feet and my throat slit, and they would have fun watching the blood gush out of me because I was young," Kathleen Mangan-Valle told a Manhattan jury that one chat revealed.
Mangan-Valle, 27, also read about plans to put one friend in a suitcase, wheel her out of her building and murder her. Two other women were "going to be raped in front of each other to heighten their fears," while another was going to be roasted alive over an open fire, she said.
Valle's lawyers said he was just fantasizing.
Defense attorney Julia Gatto argued that Valle "never intended to kidnap anyone." She added: "You can't convict people for their thoughts, even if they're sick."
Valle was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database that prosecutors say he used to help build a list of potential targets.
Valle faces up to life in prison on the kidnapping conviction when he is sentenced.
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