Hello!
The verb in this sentence is "became" as it indicates the action of the subject (the defendant), which is what he/she did.
Hope this helps!
A participial phrase is a phrase that looks like a verb, but actually functions as an adjective; it modifies a noun in the same sentence.
<span>Schlosser next focuses on the safety not just of factory workers in the meatpacking industry, but of the meat itself that that industry produces. Schlosser notes, throughout the chapter, that it is actually quite difficult to track the source of food-borne pathogens in the United States. There are several reasons for this, some more preventable than others: a great deal of meat is produced in this country; government oversight in meatpacking plants is rather low; and meat production is a complex system with many inputs, making cause and effect hard to determine.</span>
