After eight days of trial, jurors decided Wednesday that a Kenosha mother killed her 8-year-old son by punishing him with a cold shower.

Jurors deliberated about 90 minutes before deciding that Abelina Zalazar, 27, was criminally responsible for the February 2008 death of her son, Uriel Zalazar.

Uriel died after his mother allegedly made him run around their house and then take a shower in 38-degree water as a punishment for hitting his 4-year-old brother. Experts believe the shower caused hypothermia, which likely stopped the boy’s heart.

Jurors found Abelina Zalazar guilty of first-degree reckless homicide, obstruction and two counts of child abuse. Jurors acquitted Zalazar of false imprisonment.

Zalazar faces more than 40 years in prison. She also faces deportation because she is an illegal immigrant.

No sentencing date was set Wednesday evening.

In order to find her guilty of a homicide-related charge, jurors were instructed to consider whether Zalazar’s actions were a substantial factor in Uriel’s death. Jurors also were told to weigh whether Zalazar’s actions created a substantial risk of death or great bodily harm, whether Zalazar was aware of that risk and whether she disregarded her son’s life.

Jurors spent the afternoon listening to lawyers’ final arguments.

Defense attorney John Moyer urged jurors to separate the tragedy of Uriel’s death from his mother’s potential criminal responsibility for the end of his life.

Disciplinary tactics

Moyer also asked jurors to set aside their disapproval, even their revulsion, at Zalazar’s disciplinary tactics, which included tying her son by one arm and one leg to a bed, whipping him with a vacuum cord, making him run until tired and ordering him to take cold showers.

Prosecutors also alleged Uriel was burned, punched and had his middle toes purposely pounded, which blackened the nails — injuries that were purposely concealed under clothing, prosecutor Michael Graveley said.

“Abelina Zalazar punished Uriel harshly in a physical way,” Moyer said. But, he added, “Look at what she knew. I don’t think she understood the gravity of what the punishments could do to her son.”

A fair and objective review of the evidence would show that Zalazar was not aware of the physical risks to her son, Moyer argued.

Waited to call 911

Graveley argued that Zalazar’s culpability went beyond being aware of the risks of punishment and included her failure to call 911 after she found Uriel limp and unconscious in the near-freezing shower water.

Graveley spent nearly 90 minutes cataloging Zalazar’s “out of control anger” and the torturous punishments she devised for her son, as well as her unwillingness, on the day of Uriel’s death, to call to get him “meaningful, life-saving” help.

Zalazar reportedly covered the child with blankets, massaged him with rubbing alcohol and tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but waited more than an hour, possibly close to two hours, before calling paramedics.

Those facts, Graveley said, added up to a mother who was more worried about covering up apparent abuse to save herself than saving her son.

“You have to consider it all together,” Graveley said.