After a four-week trial and two days of deliberations, a New Jersey jury Thursday found Steven Fortin, formerly of Newport, guilty of murder, aggravated sexual assault and robbery in the killing of a New Jersey woman. He now faces the death penalty.

Fortin, a 36-year-old handyman, was convicted five years ago in Maine of the brutal assault and beating of Maine State Trooper Vicki Gardner on Interstate 95 in Pittsfield.

Formerly from New Jersey, he had been living with his parents in Newport at the time of the attack and was sentenced to 23 years in jail. He was being held in a Maine prison when he was returned to New Jersey.

In his closing arguments to the jury on Monday, Middlesex County Prosecutor Thomas Kapsak said the attack on Gardner and the strangulation murder of the young New Jersey mother eight months earlier were so similar that the crimes could have been committed only by one person: Steven Fortin.

Kapsak said Thursday that he was quite pleased with the verdict, which found Fortin guilty on all counts.

“I feel very good,” the prosecutor said in a telephone interview.

In 1995, Gardner was beaten and assaulted as she attempted to arrest Fortin for operating under the influence. When she was distracted while sealing a sobriety test, Fortin struck her and choked her to unconsciousness.

The trooper then was sexually assaulted and managed to regain consciousness and escape from her vehicle while Fortin drove it south on the interstate. He crashed the cruiser and was captured while hiding in a bathroom stall in a rest area.

Gardner was dragged by the moving cruiser while trying to escape and spent months recovering from her injuries. She is back on duty and assigned to the Orono barracks.

The trooper, who testified one afternoon during the New Jersey trial, could not be reached Thursday for comments about the verdict.

Several Maine State Police detectives also testified during the trial.

Fortin was linked to the New Jersey murder when detectives in both states noticed bizarre similarities in the two crimes. Both Gardner and the New Jersey victim had been brutally struck in the face, strangled and bitten during the attacks. Expert testimony stated that the bite marks on both women belonged to Fortin.

While juries rarely hear about a defendant’s unrelated crimes, the New Jersey Supreme Court allowed Kapsak to introduce testimony from an FBI profiler who linked the two crimes with Fortin’s “ritualistic behavior.”

Kapsak said that Fortin’s trial still may have been successful without linking the Maine crime to Fortin, but “his arrest never would have been made.”

“We did not have a suspect in this murder,” the prosecutor said. “We knew nothing of Mr. Fortin until he attacked the Maine trooper.”

“Certainly it was a lot more helpful to have Vicki Gardner on the stand, pointing out Fortin as the man who attacked her. It must have been very difficult for her since, even though troopers are trained professionals, in this case, Ms. Gardner was the victim.”

Kapsak said a second jury would now be empanelled for the sentencing phase of the trial. He said he is seeking the death penalty for Fortin and expects the jury pool to number at least 500. The penalty trial should get under way in January.

According to the prosecutor, the defense repeatedly argued throughout Fortin’s trial that just because he admitted to committing the attack on Gardner, he was not guilty of the attack on Melissa Padilla, 25.

Padilla had been beaten, strangled and raped as she walked back from a store where she bought groceries for her four young children.

Thursday’s conviction was the second time Fortin has been convicted of killing another person. In 1983, he served less than three years in prison in New Jersey for stabbing to death his brother during a family argument.