A Pennsylvania jury yesterday convicted trucker James R. Cruz Jr., 36, of Waterf

A Pennsylvania jury yesterday convicted trucker James R. Cruz Jr., 36, of Waterford, Ohio, of first-degree murder in the strangulation of Dawn Marie Birnbaum, a 17-year-old girl who ran away from the Elan School in Poland on March 21, 1993. Her body was found on March 24 on a snowbank at a remote intersection near Interstate 80. The jury acquitted Cruz of kidnapping, rape, deviate sexual intercourse, and robbery. The judge sentenced Cruz the life in prison