Dan Zapp, 19, of Bethlehem and the 19-year-old woman were in the York County courtroom throughout the six-day trial and embraced Monday after guilty verdicts were returned on all counts against William Babner, 40.
More than a dozen friends and family members engulfed the pair, taking turns hugging the survivors.
An emotional Zapp had little to say but tried to hug everyone within reach.
The 1999 Liberty High School graduate said he looks forward to returning to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh this fall as a second semester freshman.
"I'm just glad it's over," Zapp said. "This will never be closed."
A solemn Babner, who rarely showed emotion in the courtroom, kneeled on a chair by the defense table and waited to be shackled by court officers for his return trip to York County Prison, where he was being held under $1 million bail.
Judge Sheryl Ann Dorney revoked bail and set sentencing for Sept. 7, pending a pretrial investigation.
Babner faces 20 to 40 years for each of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, 10 to 20 years for each of four rape convictions and an assortment of time for three counts of involuntary sexual deviancy, two counts each of aggravated assault and kidnapping and one count each of robbery and carrying a firearm without a license.
"Today was the first step for putting a monster on ice for a very long time," said Ed Paskey, the first deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case with York County District Attorney H. Stanley Rebert.
Chief Public Defender Bruce Blocher tried to argue in closing that there was no intent in Babner's actions. He admitted Babner was delusional and equated the gunshot wounds suffered by the victims to a hunting accident.
Zapp was shot on the right side of his neck. The bullet exited his left jaw.
The woman was first shot in the jaw, which almost severed her tongue.
The prosecution also presented witnesses who determined through blood stains on Babner's clothes that he kicked Zapp into the river. They also determined that the woman was shot in the thigh while she was floating in the river.
Neither Zapp nor the woman, who each spent 10 days in the hospital recovering from their injuries, could remember what happened after being shot.
Blocher, who never made an opening statement, rested his case Monday without calling a witness or having Babner testify.
Dorney instructed the jury that it could not be influenced by Babner's lack of testimony.
Paskey told the seven women and five men in his closing argument that all 84 exhibits presented by the prosecution pale in comparison to the testimony of the victims.
"These two young people were at the mercy of the defendant," he said. "We're not talking about misguided shots that missed their feet. We're talking about a shot inches away from (the woman victim's ) brain."
Zapp was on winter vacation Jan. 8 when he traveled to York County to meet the woman after four months of communicating on the Internet, he said last Tuesday, the first day of testimony.
The pair testified that they were walking along the Susquehanna River when a red pickup truck driven by Babner parked near them.
Babner seemed friendly at first, but the pair became apprehensive after a brief conversation in which Babner slurred his words and repeated questions.
Zapp and the woman were trying to get away when Babner blocked their path with his truck, stepped out of the vehicle brandishing a 9 mm pistol and demanded they get in the vehicle.
Babner locked Zapp into the camper-topped bed of the truck and brought the woman into the cab as he drove the pair to a secluded area by the Susquehanna River about 12 miles away.
The woman testified that Babner raped her repeatedly before she and Zapp were ordered to the bank of the river, where they were shot.
A fisherman rescued them from the river and contacted authorities.
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