Thomas Liming found guilty of killing his high school friend, Kyle Underhill

A Suffolk jury Monday rejected an Islip man's claim of self-defense and convicted him of second-degree murder for strangling and beating a high school friend and burying him alive in a marshy grave.

The conviction of Thomas Liming, now 23, came four years to the day after he and Kyle Underhill, 18, walked into the woods off Brook Street in Islip. Underhill's battered body was found three days later with two sticks jammed into his mouth.

The jury deliberated 3 1/2 hours after a 10-week trial. The verdict came about 10 minutes after a short break when one juror complained of needing air in the overheated deliberation room.

Liming did not react to the verdict. In the audience, Underhill's stepfather, Anthony Catanzaro, leaned forward and squeezed the shoulder of Underhill's father, Kelcey Stevens.

Liming's parents and twin sister left the courtroom stoically, without comment.

"It was overwhelming proof of guilt," Assistant District Attorney Raphael Pearl said afterward. In his closing argument, he said Underhill's injuries were so extensive there was no way that Liming was acting in self-defense -- particularly because Liming had no visible injuries at all afterward.

Underhill's family expressed relief.

"While we will never get our son back and we have been handed a life sentence, we are happy to know Thomas Liming will spend the rest of his life in jail," Stevens said. He, Catanzaro and Underhill's mother, Aimee Underhill-Catanzaro, thanked police, prosecutors and jurors.

"It was hard because he's so young," said one juror, who would not give his name, of Liming.

Defense attorney Joseph Corozzo of Manhattan said afterward that his client hopes to be vindicated in the future.

"He has faith that it's not over," Corozzo said. "We established that he acted justifiably."

Pearl argued that the brutality of the attack -- and a cover-up afterward orchestrated by Liming's family -- made clear who initiated the attack. In the days after Underhill died, Pearl said Liming went to stay with family in New Jersey and private investigators hired by the family tried to hide evidence.

Pearl said Liming's mother, Kim Liming -- the only family member not charged in the case -- lied repeatedly on the witness stand for her son during the trial. Liming's father, Keith Liming, was charged with perjury after he told a grand jury he didn't know what happened to the clothing his son wore that night. Liming's twin sister, Elaine, was charged with criminal contempt for what prosecutors said was evasive grand jury testimony. Those cases are pending.

Pearl said Liming first hit Underhill in the back of the head and then jumped on top of Underhill, snapping several ribs while he strangled him. By then Underhill was no threat, Pearl said, but Liming hit him more than a dozen times in the head, then dug a hole and dragged Underhill into it. Pearl suggested Liming jammed sticks into the dying Underhill's mouth to silence him while Liming dug the grave.

He told jurors last week he could not prove why Liming did it, but said there "was a level of intimacy that went beyond mere friendship. Pearl said he didn't know if the relationship was sexual, but said Liming -- unlike Underhill -- hid the nature of the friendship from his family and friends.

Liming faces 25 years to life in prison when state Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen sentences him Dec. 14.