Teen murderer”s conviction stands, judge says
HAILEY, Idaho – An Idaho judge refused to order a new trial for a teen convicted March 16 of murdering her parents, ruling there was no evidence of inappropriate contact between jurors and members of the victims’ family.
That clears the way for Sarah Johnson, 18, to be sentenced June 29 on two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the Sept. 2, 2003, slayings of Diane and Alan Johnson, the Twin Falls Times-News reported.
The Bellevue woman faces life behind bars.
An attorney for Johnson had requested a new trial on claims that the jury had mingled with family of the victims and could have overheard conversations and opinions about the trial in progress.
Bob Pangburn, Johnson’s lawyer, also contended that several family members and friends wore photo buttons of the victims, Alan and Diane Johnson, which provided “inappropriate communication” to jurors.
There was “absolutely zero evidence that any juror did anything” to indicate misconduct, 5th District Judge Barry Wood ruled.
“I question the characterization of it (the buttons) having a message of ‘convict her,’ ” Wood said in the Hailey courtroom. “The jury saw hundreds of pieces of evidence. They saw photos of Mrs. Johnson with no head. They saw Alan lying bloody after being shot. This button was not evidence; photos were.”
Blaine County Prosecutor Jim Thomas said the defense’s latest attempt to win a new trial involved “lies, more lies and damn lies.”
“They’ve sunk to an all-time low,” Thomas said. “They made a Hail Mary last-ditch effort. It’s the same strategy they had in the trial – grasping at straws.”
Johnson was convicted of pulling the trigger on a .264-caliber rifle, first killing her mother as she lay in bed in the early morning hours, then turning the weapon on her father as he exited the couple’s shower in their Bellevue, Idaho, home.
Prosecutors said Johnson, 16 at the time, killed her parents after a row with them over her older boyfriend, Bruno Santos, a 19-year-old undocumented Mexican immigrant who was living in the region.
Pangburn said he will appeal the case to the Idaho Supreme Court after the June 29 sentencing. Among his arguments will be that the buttons, worn by family members including Sarah Johnson’s brother, Matt, prejudiced members of the jury against Johnson.
“They were pictures of her folks,” Pangburn said in an interview with the Associated Press. “Particularly in a case like this, when the brother is wearing one of those, what he’s saying is, ‘Convict my sister.’ “
One of the jurors, Leslie Fortez, of Meridian, said in a separate interview with the Times-News that claims by Pangburn that the 12-member jury mingled inappropriately with the victims’ family were unfounded.
“The jury did not intermingle with the family,” Leslie Fortez said.
Fortez said jury members have maintained contact with each other following the trial in Boise’s Ada County Courthouse, where the most-expensive case in Blaine County history – costs topped $800,000 – was moved because Wood agreed it would have been tough to find impartial jurors at home.
Jurors considered many scenarios to try to find an explanation for the killings that didn’t include Johnson pulling the trigger, Fortez said.
“It was a horrible decision to come to, to think a child could do this,” Fortez said. “We went through every scenario to try to prove it wrong. But she was the only one there.”