Officer Williams faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison. Officer Moore faces a possible maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

(CNN) and [HERE] -- Two New Orleans police officers were convicted Wednesday in federal court in a 2005 beating death and cover-up after initially telling investigators the victim was suffering from a drug overdose.

Several neighbors of the man who was killed testified they saw Officer Melvin Williams approach Raymond Robair on the street in Robair's neighborhood and kick him in the side and beat him repeatedly with a baton, according to the Justice Department.

Officials said after the beating, Williams -- along with a second officer, Matthew Dean Moore -- placed an unconscious Robair into their police car and drove him to Charity Hospital.

According to a Justice Department release, witnesses at the trial said the two police officers falsely informed the hospital staff they found Robair under a bridge and all they knew was that Robair was a drug user. Based upon that information, the hospital treated Robair for a drug overdose rather than blunt force trauma. Robair suffered fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen as a result of the beating. He was pronounced dead within a few hours.