HOUSTON -- A man convicted of shooting four people, three of them fatally, at a northwest Houston bowling alley more than 25 years ago was found guilty of capital murder a second time on Wednesday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Max Soffar, 50, originally was sent to death row in the 1980 killings of two teenagers and a 25-year-old man at the Fair Lanes Windfern Bowling Center.

However, a three-judge appellate court panel threw out the conviction in 2004 after deciding Soffar had received ineffective legal representation.

The verdict in Soffar's retrial was announced shortly before noon.

KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday that the jury only asked to see Soffar's police statement and how he described the interior of the bowling alley before reaching the verdict.

The case was handed to the jury Tuesday shortly after noon. Jurors deliberated for about five hours before being sequestered at a hotel. The jury resumed deliberations Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.

Prosecution: Soffar Knew Too Much About Crime

On Tuesday, many of the relatives attended closing arguments at the state's request despite the deep personal pain of reliving events that happened 25 years ago.

"If we are not here, the victims are not represented," one of the relatives told KPRC Local 2.

Soffar, a drug addict who occasionally acted as a police informant in drug investigations, confessed to the killings but later recanted.

Prosecutors argued that Soffar knew too much about the crime to not be involved. They pointed out that Soffar initiated conversations about the crime with his family and acquaintances after the murders.

"The defense didn't bring you any evidence that he falsely confessed, that he didn't commit the crime or that someone else committed the crime," said prosecutor Denise Nassar. "They picked at all the little details with hopes you'll ignore that he confessed."

Jurors were not told during the trial that Soffar spent two decades on death row, but were informed of his alcohol and drug abuse problems and the amount of time he spent in mental institutions and reform schools.

Defense: Confessions Not Backed Up By Evidence

Defense attorneys in his current trial said the former truck driver and ironworker had the mentality of a 10-year-old old when he confessed, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online editions Tuesday.

"It's not enough to say, 'He must have done it, so he's guilty.' The state has to bring you proof," a defense attorney said during Tuesday's closing arguments.

The defense told the jury Soffar's confessions were not backed up by evidence from the crime scene or the account of the robbery-murder's sole survivor, Gregory George Garner.

Garner, who was an employee of the bowling alley, is disfigured from a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was unable to identify Soffar as the gunman during the first trial.

The defense contend police focused on Soffar because they had no other suspects and few leads in the deaths of Arden Alane Felsher, 17; Stephen Allen Sims, 25; and Tommy Lee Temple, 17.

"Mr. Soffar fell into their laps," said defense lawyer Stanley Schneider. "They had a scapegoat ... and they held him tight."

The defense's strategy has focused on three statements Soffar gave police, in which he admitted involvement in the robbery and murders. They have claimed Soffar's statements were lies.

The Dallas Morning News reported in its Wednesday editions that the defense attorneys were not able to tell jurors about Soffar's explanation in a letter to his original attorney about why he told a self-incriminating lie. Soffar said in the letter he was angry at a friend and thought he could get him charged in the robbery-murder, the newspaper reported. The friend was questioned but released.

Soffar would have had to testify to get the letter into evidence and defense attorneys did not want to put him on the stand.

Soffar's supporters -- which include the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, professor David Dow with the University of Houston's Innocence Project and humorist and gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman -- have said no evidence or witness testimony placed him at the scene, and that he has not been linked to the crime weapon, which was never found.