Iowa State basketball player Belefia Parks was found guilty of second-degree theft by a jury Thursday.

Parks, a transfer point guard from DePaul University who did not play last year under NCAA regulations, was arrested on May 30. Parks, his girlfriend Kate Hightshoe and Kmart employee George Bellevue were accused of walking out of the Ames Kmart with more than $1,000 worth of electronic equipment.

Second-degree theft is a class D felony punishable by fines up to $7,500 and a maximum prison term of no more than five years. Sentencing will occur at a later date.

Both the defense and the prosecution said the most important question for the jury to decide was whether Parks intended to steal the merchandise. Both lawyers agreed the other facts were not in question.

Parks’s attorney, William T. Talbot, questioned witnesses to show that Parks and Bellevue did not know each other and could not have planned together to take the merchandise.

Jeffrey Smith, a Des Moines Kmart loss control manager who questioned Parks on the night of his arrest, said Parks originally said he didn’t know Bellevue, and then later said, “There aren’t many brothers in Ames, so you do know who’s in town.”

Bellevue, who was found guilty in an earlier trial, said he only knew Parks from pick-up basketball games and from seeing him at parties.

He said he only recognized Parks, and he was not a friend of his.

Parks said he didn’t “know George Bellevue, but I know of George Bellevue.” He said he had played basketball with Bellevue, but had not had any other social contact with him.

Parks testified on his own behalf. He said on the evening of May 30 he had not wanted to go to the store with Hightshoe because he wanted to watch a basketball game. But he finally went with Hightshoe, because she said she would buy him something, he said.

Parks said he expected Hightshoe to buy him things because she treated him with celebrity status as an athlete.

Parks said he quickly picked out merchandise at Kmart while he was watching a basketball game in the electronics department. He said he “didn’t know what” he was picking out. “I just loaded items I needed.” He said he brought one full cart to Hightshoe and then loaded another cart.

Parks did not talk to Hightshoe because he “wanted her to think about what she was going to get,” Parks said.

He said he then went out to the parking lot because he was worried Hightshoe might think he was “getting outrageous” with all of the merchandise he had picked out, and because he “wanted to get going.”

When Hightshoe and Bellevue came into the parking lot together, security “came from everywhere,” Parks said.

He said he did not make any statements to the security officers in the parking lot.

Talbot questioned Parks about his past history. Parks said he had grown up in a housing development project in the south side of Chicago where there were a lot of gangs, drugs and violence.

He said he used to have to call police to escort him into his home. He talked about his success as a student majoring in sociology and his desire to go back to work in his old community to “show the kids there is a way out if you just apply yourself.”