Thermometer as Weapon: Calif. Man Guilty of Attempted Murder in Strange Movie Theater Dispute

LANCASTER, Calif. (CBS/AP) Prosecutors called it an example of how far common decency has fallen: a man is stabbed in the neck simply because he asked someone to turn off their cell phone and refrain from talking during a movie.

Now Landry Boullard, the man convicted of stabbing another California man in the neck with a digital thermometer, faces life in prison.

A Lancaster Superior Court jury on Thursday convicted Landry of attempted murder.

The incident happened in February during a screening of the film "Shutter Island" in Lancaster, Calif., about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, and attracted a lot of attention not only because of the motive - Boullard was apparently angry that the victim had asked his female companion to turn off her cell phone - but also because of the weapon of choice: a digital thermometer.

During the trial witnesses testified that Boullard and his female companion had been talking throughout the film when the woman's cell phone rang, and she answered it and began a conversation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Sherwood told the Los Angeles Times.

"The victim asked the female to stop using the cellphone," Sherwood said. Another woman seated nearby "said the victim was rather polite when he said it, nicer than he needed to be," Sherwood told the paper.

Nonetheless, words were exchanged and Boullard stormed out only to return, armed with the five-inch-long thermometer, and stab the victim in the throat. Two other people who tried to help, a friend of the victim and a stranger, were also injured before Boullard fled the scene, the Times reported.

Sherwoods feels the verdict is a call for civility: "we've all had enough of this blatant disregard for decency: You can't go to a movie theater without worrying about saying the wrong thing to the wrong person and being stuck with a thermometer in your neck."

Boullard was also found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm by a felon in connection with the assault. He could get life in prison when he's sentenced in January.