Raw video: Slain officer's sister speaks out | Courtney Zubowski's 5 p.m. update | Shern-Min Chow's 10 p.m. update

HOUSTON – An illegal immigrant convicted of killing a Houston police officer will spend the rest of his life in prison without any chance of parole.

A local jury decided Juan Quintero ’s punishment Tuesday afternoon.

Quintero was found guilty of capital murder in the death of Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson last week.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty.

Johnson was shot during a traffic stop in 2006. Police said Quintero shot Johnson with a 9 mm handgun he pulled from his waistband.  Johnson had apparently missed the weapon in a pat-down search.

Investigators believe Quintero, who was handcuffed, was able to wriggle his hands to the front of his body while in the backseat of the patrol car.

He shot Johnson in the face three times.

“Juan Quintero is not remorseful, and he is not insane. Losing a loved one the way that we did, and we have is enough to drive someone insane. None of us have displayed such disgraceful and despicable behavior towards him as he has shown this family,” Johnson’s sister said in a victim’s impact statement Tuesday.

For Johnson’s family, Tuesday’s punishment did not fit the crime.

“You murder a man as soon as his back is turned. You tell me mitigating -- unbelievable,” said Johnson’s brother, David.

Officer Enrique Duharte echoed that dismay. He narrowly survived four bullets as he witnessed his partner and best friend's murder in 2001.   

“If anything happened to one of us, to make sure we would take care of each other's family,” said Duharte.

For Duharte, that commitment also means speaking out about Quintero escaping the death penalty.

“Him getting life obviously sends the wrong message to other criminals,” he said.

Duharte said he fears many people who serve on juries say they can give the death penalty, but can't actually do it. For Quintero, the jury’s vote was 10 -2 to give the illegal immigrant life in prison.

“I could have voted for the death penalty. In fact, there was times when I felt like I might,” said juror Tiffany Moore. She said in the end, she felt Quintero's life still had value.

Many police officers might argue that point.

Prosecutors say they were surprised by the jurors' decision, but they say Quintero will spend the rest of his life locked in prison.

“Rodney Johnson was a great man. In no way should this reflect on him as an officer. He was wonderful. (It is) not what we wanted, but we do accept it,” said John Jordan, who prosecuted the case.

Defense attorneys called the decision justice, not vengeance. They say Quintero is remorseful and relieved.

Still, minutes before the verdict, 11 News cameras caught him smiling.

“In some ways he wanted death,” said Quintero’s defense attorney, David Lane. “He is remorseful.”

Jurors spent more than ten hours deciding Quintero’s punishment.

It wasn’t an easy choice.

“I actually handle stress well, but this is the most stressful thing I have ever done in my life,” Moore said.

The trial sparked ire among anti-illegal immigration activists as well.

Quintero was originally deported in 1999 after he was charged with indecency with a child.  He had returned to the country at the time of the shooting and was employed with a local landscaping firm.

11 News photo

Juan Quintero

In a press conference before the trial, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt had harsh words for the system that let Quintero into the country illegally.

“If the government would fulfill their responsibility of protecting the border, we would probably not be standing here today,” Hurtt said.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s widow, Joslyn Johnson, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the man that employed her husband’s killer.

Joslyn Johnson, also an HPD officer, claims Robert Lane Camp was negligent in hiring Quintero, an illegal immigrant.

Camp is already facing federal charges related to Quintero’s hiring.

Ben Dominquez, Mrs. Johnson’s attorney, said his client was seeking $10 million in damages from Camp.

Rodney Johnson was born in Houston but graduated from high school in Oakland, Calif., in 1984, according to a biography kept by the Houston Police Officers’ Union. He then served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer until being honorably discharged in 1990.

Johnson went to work as a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and then as a jail attendant. He graduated from the Houston Police Academy in 1994.

As a member of the department’s Southeast Gang Task Force, Johnson earned two Lifesaving Awards and one Medal of Valor from the state of Texas.

According to HPD, he rescued a physically challenged driver trapped in rising floodwaters in January 1998.

That same year he rescued mentally challenged people trapped inside of a burning house, HPD said.

Johnson, who was 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds, served on the officers’ union board of directors.

“He was big and he was intimidating-looking, but he was as gentle as a baby bear,” said Hans Marticiuc, union president.

Officer Johnson is survived by his wife and their five children, ages 14 to 19.