A jury has convicted the man accused in the deadly 2019 kidnapping of a Birmingham 3-year-old.

Patrick Stallworth and his girlfriend planned all day and then carried out the deadly kidnapping of Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney three years ago, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Why? It could have been for the 42-year-old Stallworth’s sexual gratification – child pornography was found on his phone and video evidence showed him buying a male enhancement pill form a convenience store hours after the abduction, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany Byrd in closing arguments.

It also could have been because Stallworth’s girlfriend, 32-year-old Derick Irisha Brown had lost custody of her six children and wanted another child.

“It doesn’t matter,’’ Bryd told jurors. “All that matters is you have everything you need to get justice for Kamille McKinney. Find him guilty.”

Stallworth’s attorney, Derrick Collins, said in his closing arguments, however, that the U.S. government failed to prove Stallworth was responsible, or even involved in a conspiracy with Brown, to kidnap Cupcake.

Collins offered condolences to Cupcake’s family on behalf of himself, Stallworth and Stallworth’s family, but said his client did not do anything to harm Cupcake.

“Mr. Stallworth has cried many times over this tragedy,’’ Collins said in closing arguments to the jury, reiterating that is the defense’s contention that Brown was solely responsible for the kidnapping and death of Cupcake. “My client is a victim…for falling in love with her.”

Stallworth and Brown are both charged federally with kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap a minor.

A jury returned with a verdict after less than an hour of deliberations. Stallworth was found guilty on both counts.

Stallworth showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

Brown’s trial is set for Nov. 14 in federal court in Tuscaloosa.

A sentencing date has not yet been set. The U.S. Department of Justice previously ruled it will not seek the death penalty in the federal charges. Stallworth faces mandatory life without parole in his federal convictions.

Both still are charged with capital murder in state court. No state trial dates have yet been set.

Cupcake vanished from a birthday party at Tom Brown Village public housing community on Oct. 12, 2019. Her body was found at the landfill 10 days later.

Chief U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler is presiding over the trial. Lloyd Peeples, chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Criminal Division, along with assistant U.S. Attorneys Byrd and Blake Milner, are prosecuting the case. Stallworth is represented by Birmingham attorney Derrick Collins.

The jury began deliberating Friday after the trial’s start on Monday. Federal prosecutors introduced more than 100 pieces of evidence and 22 witnesses.

The prosecution contended that Stallworth and Brown had planned all day to kidnap a child. Earlier that Saturday, according to testimony, Stallworth was seen on video buying $18.91 in candy at a convenience store near Tom Brown Village.

Then, a short time later, a 12-year-old girl said Stallworth stopped her as she was leaving cheerleading practice at Hayes K-8 and asked her if she wanted some candy. She ran away.

Later, according to testimony, Stallworth and Brown were seen sitting in their Toyota Sequoia on a street and, when confronted by a resident, Brown asked where were all the children that used to play on the circle. That woman testified that Brown seemed overly interested in children.

Testimony throughout the week showed Stallworth in the Toyota Sequoia throughout the day. His whereabouts that day were documented through area surveillance videos and phone location data.

Stallworth initially denied knowing anything about Cupcake’s disappearance. He was interviewed five times by investigators and it was only during that final interview – after the girl’s decomposing body was found – that he admitted to seeing the girl at his apartment.

He claimed Brown had taken the girl, saying she wanted to keep her, and he also said the Brown wanted him to sexually touch the girl. He told detectives that Brown “put Cupcake to sleep” by putting her hands over her nose and mouth.

He claimed that he took a sleeping pill and when he awoke, Cupcake was no longer in the apartment. Brown was beside him in the bed, he said, and they had sex.

Testimony showed that Cupcake’s body was discarded in a construction trash bin at an apartment complex next door to where Stallworth and Brown lived in Center Point.

FBI Agent Cynthia Bobe said Derick Brown told them where to look for the girl’s body. Bobe testified that the trash bins were so tall that she went up to a second story at the complex and looked down on them. She did not see Cupcake’s body.

As investigators were looking at the bins, the company came to take them to the landfill. Those bins were kept separated from the general trash at the landfill, and that’s when authorities went through them and found Cupcake’s body.

FBI Agent Stanley Ruffin testified that he found Cupcake’s body, and said at first, he thought it was a doll.

“I saw what I thought was a doll just laying there,’’ an emotional Ruffin testified. “And I realized it wasn’t doll.”

“I had to close my eyes to think if I was really seeing what I was seeing,’’ Ruffin said. “I took a moment, thought about my own children.”

“When I opened my eyes, I realized I was actually seeing a human body,’’ he said. “A little girl.”

Ruffin retired a short time later.

Medical experts testified that Cupcake died by asphyxia. She had methamphetamine, Trazodone and Benadryl in her system.

Dr. Daniel Dye, of the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner’s Office said the meth and Trazodone contributed to the baby’s death. He said there was no visible sign of sexual trauma to Cupcake that they could find.

Cupcake’s DNA, however, was found on a plastic mattress cover in the couple’s apartment. DNA belonging to Stallworth and Brown were also found on the cover.

In the prosecution’s closing arguments, Milner said Stallworth accomplished what he and Brown set out to do that Saturday – kidnap a child. “But for his actions, she would still be alive,’’ he said of Cupcake.

The defense claimed that Stallworth never knew Cupcake had been abducted.

Collins, in his closing arguments, said the couple went to Tom Brown Village for Brown to talk to her children’s father about their whereabouts while they were in DHR custody.

Stallworth contends he got out of the car and walked around to avoid a run -in with the children’s father.

Collins said it was during that time that Brown took Cupcake and gave her Trazodone, described as a “knock-out” drug. Cupcake immediately fell asleep in the back of the SUV, Collins said.

“My client never knew that child was in the car,’’ Collins said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.