Man convicted of 1983 double murder for the third time

A man charged with killing a Texas couple as they camped in north-central Idaho 36 years ago has been found guilty for the third time.

The Lewiston Tribune reports a jury found Mark Lankford guilty of two counts of first-degree murder on Friday. It was Lankford’s third trial in the 1983 double murder case, but the two previous convictions were both thrown out on appeal.

Prosecutors said Mark and his brother Bryan Lankford were both involved in the beating deaths of U.S. Marine Capt. Robert Bravence and his wife, Cheryl Bravence. The couple from El Paso, Texas, was on a camping trip along the South Fork of the Clearwater River in Idaho at the time.

The first trial in the case was held in 1984. At the time, the brothers were both sentenced to death but Bryan Lankford’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison.