SANTA ANA -- A man who got his best friend to stab his parents to death in 1999 to steal their savings, which they put in a safety deposit box out of unfounded fear of a new millennium computer crash, was convicted Tuesday of murder charges.

Jose Alonso Najera Jr., 29, was found guilty of first-degree and second-degree murder charges in the deaths of his father, Jose Najera Sr., and mother, Elena, respectively.

The jury also found true special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and multiple murders.

Najera faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set for June 28.

Co-defendant Gerald Thomas Johnson was convicted on March 15, 2002, of first- and second-degree murder for stabbing Jose and Elena Najera to death on Dec. 28, 1999, in their Garden Grove home.

He killed himself in prison in 2008, the same year that the victims' son -- his best friend from Mater Dei High School -- was arrested.

Najera blew a kiss to his fiancee as he was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.

"He's devastated,'' defense attorney Michael Molfetta said. "He's upset. He maintains his innocence, so this is obviously a gut shot.''

The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated all day Friday and part of this morning before reaching the verdict.

"Molfetta said in opening statements that if everything I said was proven during the course of the case, then they should find the defendant guilty. And I guess the jury took that to heart because we certainly proved everything we said we were going to prove in our opening remarks and more,'' Deputy District Attorney Mike Murray said. "It was good to see the jury paid attention.''

Johnson was linked to the crime scene through DNA evidence on a ski mask that was left behind.

Najera left a window open to his home so Johnson could get in, according to the prosecutor. Johnson held a party at his home the night of Dec. 27, 1999, to create an alibi, Murray said.

At some point during the night as Johnson, Najera and their friends played pool, drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes, Johnson said he was going to bed to establish another alibi for when he drove over to the Najera home, Murray said.

Investigators theorize that as Johnson stabbed Jose Najera Sr. to death, his wife interrupted the struggle and was also killed, Murray said.

The Najeras, fearing the then-predicted 2000 computer crash, took their savings out of their bank account, converted it into cash and stored the money in a safe-deposit box in the bank.

Before the murders, their son dipped into the stash to pay for strippers and even bought Christmas presents for himself and gave them to his cousins so they could give them back to him to ensure he'd get what he wanted for the holiday, Murray said.

The prosecutor told jurors that the defendant was angry that he got caught by his parents blowing $18,000 in a failed drug deal and then having to pay it back by working for his father for free.

Murray told the jury "the fly in the ointment'' for the conspiracy was Najera's friend, Grady Owen, who saw Johnson pull his car into his friend's driveway in the early morning hours before the murders. Owen called Najera to invite him to go with Owen and his girlfriend to Las Vegas and noted there was a car pulling into the driveway.

Najera panicked and said it was his father driving a friend's car. Later, Najera told Owen and investigators that it was a mechanic his father had hired to pick up the son's car for repairs.

"We know the defendant is a thief and a skilled liar,'' Murray said in his closing argument.

Jose Najera Sr., who was 42 when he died, and his 46-year-old wife were strict parents who worked hard to send their only son to a private Roman Catholic school, Murray said.

Jose Najera Jr. failed to graduate because he flunked a math class and did not complete a senior project, so he enrolled at Orange Coast College, where he took five classes, including one to make up for the math class and get his high school degree, Murray said.

He flunked four of the five classes at OCC and didn't withdraw in time to get his tuition back, he told an investigator in a taped interview that Murray played for the jury.

The defendant told investigators he was afraid his parents would send him to a relative's ranch in Mexico to work if they found out he flunked out of college, Murray said.

In the days after the slaying, Najera made incriminating statements overhead by friends and during interviews with investigators, Murray said.

Najera also never told detectives about his alleged suspicions that Johnson was the killer, though he did say that to others, including his girlfriend at the time, the prosecutor said.

Najera spent all of his parents' savings by September 2000 and the Garden Grove home went into foreclosure because he could not afford to pay the mortgage. He continued to live in Orange County in an apartment.