PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A man who said he “went crazy” when he killed a city police detective with the officer’s own gun inside police headquarters last year was convicted of murder Tuesday, as a jury rejected his claims that he was insane.

A Providence Superior Court jury reached its verdict after deliberating for a day and a half and hearing testimony over the past two weeks that portrayed Esteban Carpio, 27, as either a psychotic man in the midst of a mental breakdown or a calculating killer.

“Today closes a chapter,” Police Chief Dean Esserman said outside court. “Grieving doesn’t end, a loss is still there. But a chapter is closed, and I think justly.”

On April 16, 2005, Carpio was in the police station, being questioned by detectives investigating a stabbing when he was left alone in a room with Detective Sgt. James Allen, 50. Within moments, they were locked in a struggle and Allen was shot twice at close range with his own handgun.

Carpio jumped out a third-floor window to escape, and was captured about an hour later in downtown Providence in a violent struggle that left him bruised and battered. He appeared in court the next day with a badly swollen face and blood oozing from behind a protective plastic mask.

Carpio’s mother, Yvonne Carpio, placed her hand over her mouth and began to softly cry as the verdict was read. A woman with her broke down outside the court.

“You didn’t help a sick kid – that’s why we had this tragedy!” she screamed. “He should have got help. You knew he was sick!”

Carpio’s family had complained that they had tried and failed to get him medical help in the weeks before the shooting.

“I’m glad everything’s over with,” said Allen’s father, Lloyd, a retired Providence police captain.

Allen was married and had two teenage daughters when he was killed.

Jurors decided Allen was killed in the line of duty, a finding that allows prosecutors to seek life in prison without parole – the harshest penalty possible in Rhode Island – for Carpio. It was not immediately known when sentencing would take place.

Carpio’s lawyer, Robert Sheketoff, said his client was insane at the time of the killing – forcing jurors to decide not whether his client killed Allen but whether Carpio was too mentally ill to be held responsible for the shooting.

A psychologist and psychiatrist hired by the defense testified that Carpio was psychotic, although that was disputed by prosecutors, who said Carpio plotted his actions and knew exactly what he was doing.

During the trial, Carpio’s mother and girlfriend testified that Carpio was acting strangely in the weeks before the shooting. He complained he was cursed, believed devils were pursuing him and repeatedly shouted obscene words to keep evil spirits away, they said.

Yvonne Carpio took her son to a hospital in Boston two weeks before the shooting because she was worried about his mental state.

Samein Phin, his girlfriend, said Carpio, who was raised in Boston and had been living with her in Providence, told her someone had done voodoo on him. She testified that she told police before the shooting he was not in his right mind.

Carpio was brought to police headquarters to be questioned about the stabbing of an 84-year-old woman earlier in the day. Police said he had not been arrested and they were only questioning him, so he was not handcuffed during the interview, which happened around midnight in a detective’s conference room.

Prosecutor Paul Daly argued that Carpio made a series of rapid-fire, rational decisions on the night of the killing that suggested a ruthless and cunning killer.

Carpio asked for a cup of water, leaving him alone with Allen. Moments later, Carpio closed and locked the door, grabbed Allen’s gun and fatally shot him, prosecutors said. He then shot out a window in an adjacent office and escaped.

Carpio fled to downtown Providence and was caught about an hour later. Police testified that Carpio struggled with the officers who tried to arrest him, and a state police detective said he punched Carpio three times to restrain him.

Carpio was then taken to Rhode Island Hospital for treatment. In an interview recorded by police at the hospital after his arrest, a hysterical-sounding Carpio says he “went crazy,” was hearing voices and feared devils would take his soul and body. He said a friend had told him he would need to kill someone to keep devils away.

The following day, after Carpio’s shocking appearance in court, family members alleged he had been beaten by police. An FBI-led investigation concluded that officers did not use excessive force.

During the trial, prosecutors attempted to poke holes in the argument that Carpio was insane. Daly argued that Carpio was not repeating curse words to keep devils away, but was instead an aspiring rapper and was repeating a song lyric from the rapper Snoop Dogg.

Carpio also was convicted Tuesday in the stabbing attack on the elderly woman.