PITTSBURGH -- The Braddock man accused of assaulting his 23-month-old daughter and leaving her to die in the cold has been found guilty by an Allegheny County jury on all but one charge.

William Page was accused of leaving young Nyia Page in a wooded area of Rankin near railroad tracks, where she froze to death in February 2007. On Monday, Page was convicted of homicide in the first degree, kidnapping, aggravated indecent assault and giving false reports to law enforcement.

The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Page could be sentenced to death or life without parole.

Nyia Page's mother, Darlene Robinson, was in the courtroom for the verdict. Channel 4 Action News reported she gasped when the verdict was read and was seen crying as she left the courtroom.

The jury was hung on an additional charge of indecent assault against a 6-year-old boy who testified during the trial. Channel 4 Action News' Bob Mayo reported that the district attorney's office doesn't plan to refile that charge, to keep the boy from having to testify again.

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Closing Arguments Filled With Emotion, Jury Asks To Hear Confession Again

Closing arguments finished on Friday afternoon and the case was handed to the jury. However, the jury returned to the courtroom with questions.

Channel 4 Action News' Bob Mayo reported the jurors took special interest in Page's two confessions to police, confessions he now denies. After two hours of deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom, asking to review testimony of a county homicide sergeant present for that first confession.

On Monday, the recording of Page's second confession, which he now said he made to stop pressure from police, was again played to the jury. Following the playing of the recording, the jury resumed deliberations shortly before 10 a.m.

Mayo reported that in the prosecution's closing argument, which lasted nearly two hours on Friday, Deputy District Attorney Mark Tranquilli asked the court, "What did Page do to Nyia that was terrible enough she had to die? He molested his own daughter."

He also said he can't plumb the depths of Page's troubled mind and jurors can only come to one conclusion, that William Page "murdered her in cold, cold, cold blood."

Mayo reported defense attorney Chris Patarini asked the jury to set aside the emotional impact of this highly charged case.

Patarini argued for nearly 90 minutes that the facts are not there to convict his client. He told jurors that Page's recorded confession to police was made up and something Page said to get them to stop repeated questioning.

The defense also told jurors not to jump to conclusions because of descriptions of Page not crying when he was told Nyia was found dead.

"You don't find someone guilty on the basis of suspicion. You want sound fact," Patarini told the court. "Is that what they're doing in this case? Asking you to draw conclusions there's no basis for?"

"This whole case is asking you to make a leap of faith," Patarini said.

During closing arguments Robinson sometimes wept, at one point sitting with her head bowed, her eyes closed and her hands clasped as attorneys argued details of her daughter's death.

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