print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM Sue Pischke, Pool Karen Halbach, center, reacts after hearing the verdict for Brendan Dassey Wednesday, April 25, 2007, in Manitowoc, Wis. A jury found Dassey guilty of raping Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old freelance photographer, and helping his uncle kill her and burn her body.

MANITOWOC, Wis.Brendan Dassey could have saved the 25-year-old photographer who showed up at his uncle's junkyard for an assignment, prosecutors said. Instead, the teenager raped her and joined in killing her on Halloween, then burned her body in a barrel.

"A tragedy occurred that did not have to happen," special prosecutor Ken Kratz said Wednesday after Dassey, 17, was found guilty of homicide, sexual assault and the mutilation of a corpse in Teresa Halbach's 2005 death.

During the teenager's nine-day trial, jurors watched a videotaped statement in which Dassey described how the young woman was raped and killed. Dassey later recanted, but a jury convicted him.

The case drew national attention because Avery had been released from prison two years before Halbach's murder when DNA testing showed he couldn't have committed a 1985 rape for which he was serving time.

Halbach disappeared after going to the Avery family's auto salvage yard to photograph a minivan Avery's sister was selling through Auto Trader Magazine. Her cousins later found her vehicle in the lot, partially concealed by branches, wood and car parts.

Unlike Avery, who did not testify at either trial, Dassey took the stand in his own defense, saying he had lied when he told of going to Avery's home, seeing Halbach shackled nude in a bed, raping her and helping Avery kill her and burn the body.

The prosecution argued that evidence such as leg irons and handcuffs in Avery's bedroom and two bullets - one with Halbach's DNA on it - matched what the teen had told investigators.

In closing arguments, special prosecutor Tom Fallon said Dassey accepted his uncle's invitation to rape Halbach because he wanted to know what sex was like. Dassey helped kill her and burn her body to dispose of the evidence of the crimes, the prosecutor said.

"What we don't see up until this point and have not heard is anything scientific that matches Brendan Dassey, that places Brendan Dassey at Steven Avery's at the date and time of the killing. No DNA. No fingerprints," defense lawyer Mark Fremgen said.

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