A California court has convicted two men charged in the January 2007 murder of PC World senior technical editor Rex Farrance [pictured].

A jury in the state’s Contra Costa County court convicted Darryl Hudson, 27, of murder, robbery as well as other charges, a San Francisco Chronicle news report [1] said. Cleothius Termaine Amos, also 27, previously pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for testimony against Hudson and 25-year-old Montrell Hall, another defendant.

Jurors failed to reach a verdict in Hall’s case, resulting in a mistrial.

According to Amos’ testimony, the defendants and a fourth man broke into Farrance’s Pittsburg, California home in early 2007 in search of cash and marijuana. Farrance’s 21-year-old son, Sterling Farrance, testified earlier this month that he began growing marijuana in the house in 2006 after he obtained legal permission to do so.

Police reportedly found more than 100 marijuana plants and several pounds of processed marijuana at Farrance’s home. Farrance’s widow, Lenore Van Tosh-Farrance, testified that two masked men followed Farrance into their bedroom on the night of the crime, and one shot him in the chest.
 
Amos testified that the men stole a safe, a laptop computer and a pound of marijuana.