Jorge Orozco has been held in the Elmore County Jail since 2010, and it’s possible the 36-year-old might never leave custody again.

Orozco will find out on Jan. 14 how long he will go to prison when he is sentenced by 4th District Judge Timothy Hansen in the brutal shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Rebecca Ramirez, and two of her children more than a decade ago.

It took a jury about eight hours — split over two days — to find Orozco guilty on three counts of first-degree murder after hearing more than two weeks’ worth of testimony in the case.

Jurors came back with the guilty verdicts just after noon Thursday.

Elmore County Prosecutor Kristina Schindele agreed not to pursue the death penalty against Orozco as part of a deal to get him extradited from Mexico, but Orozco could be sent to prison for the rest of his life.

Elmore County sheriff’s deputies identified Orozco as a suspect in the case in 2002, but he avoided arrest for seven years. Orozco earned a spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, spending much of that time in his native Mexico.

Testimony in the trial began Oct. 22, and both sides gave closing arguments Wednesday morning. Jurors went home Wednesday night before reaching a verdict and resumed deliberations at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Two fishermen found the burned remains of Orozco’s car in the desert south of Mountain Home on Aug. 11, 2002. Inside were the three bodies. Enough of the license plate was left to identify the owner of the car as Orozco.

Days later, the bodies were identified and Orozco was charged, but he had already left Idaho — and likely the United States — for Mexico.

The FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and Mexican police captured Orozco in Mexico in October 2009. Deputies brought Orozco back to Idaho a year later, and he has been in custody since then.

Patrick Orr: 377-6219, Twitter: @IDS_Orr