Crazy ass dad
I'm not sure why, but my dad always sends me these stupid ass emails like this. I think he thinks I'm gonna do what this chick did.
Prosecutors claim that at about 6:20 a.m. on the day in question, Sarah walked into her parents' bedroom and shot her mother, Diana Johnson, in the head with a Winchester .264 Magnum rifle.
Sarah then went into the bathroom and shot her father, Alan Scott Johnson, right above the heart, according to police. Both died instantly.
Sarah pleaded not guilty to the crime. Although she was 16 at the time of the shootings, she is being tried as an adult. If convicted, she faces life in prison.
Prosecutors believe Sarah's three-month relationship with the then-19-year-old Bruno Santos, a former classmate at Wood River High School, was a source of conflict between Sarah and her parents.
On the Friday before the shooting, Sarah told her parents she was sleeping over at a friend's house. The Johnsons did not believe her, drove to Santos' home, and found her there.
When Sarah told them they were engaged, her parents threatened to report Santos to police for statutory rape.
Santos, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, is being held on unrelated drug possession charges and faces deportation after he testifies at Sarah's trial.
Murder investigation
After her parents were shot, Sarah ran out of the house and knocked on the doors of three neighbors screaming that her parents had been murdered, according to police.
When Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling arrived at the ranch-style house, he stopped a garbage man who was about to collect the Johnsons' trash. Femling got a search warrant and later discovered key evidence in the garbage.
Detectives found a right-handed latex glove, a left-handed leather glove, and a pink bathrobe with blood splatter that matched Sarah's and her parents' DNA, said Jim Thomas, Blaine County chief prosecutor.
Police found the rifle in the master bedroom and the matching right-handed leather glove in Sarah's room.
Femling called in Idaho State Police to help analyze the forensic evidence. Investigators surmised that the killer initially wore the leather gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, but ultimately switched and wore a latex glove on the hand that fired the gun.
Detectives traced the rifle to Mel Speegle, a family friend of the Johnsons who was renting out a guest house on their two-acre property. Police cleared Speegle as a suspect when they learned he was visiting his family in Boise, Idaho, at the time of the murders.
Investigators collected samples from other suspects, including Sarah and her boyfriend, and said evidence collected at the crime scene matched her samples.
Moreover, Thomas said, the gunshot wounds were consistent with someone who knew how to use a weapon. He said the Johnsons, including Sarah, were champion skeet shooters.
Police arrested Sarah on Oct. 29.
In addition to the crime-scene evidence linking Sarah to the crime, prosecutors say they will establish her motive to kill her parents.
The state plans to call inmates who overheard Sarah talk about the money her parents had and how she was going to spend it on her boyfriend. Santos is also expected to testify that Sarah said she would buy him a house.
"Clearly, I think one of [the motives] is money, greed," Thomas said. "She told one inmate that she'll have more money than God after this."
Prosecutors also plan to call the Sarah's 22-year-old brother to testify about the tense and often violent relationship Sarah had with her mother.
Sarah's defense lawyers did not return calls for comment.
Relocated trial
Ten women and eight men from neighboring Ada County were selected from 160 potential jurors last week after a judge determined it was too difficult to find an unbiased jury in Blaine county, where the Johnsons lived.
Judge Barry Wood decided Blaine County - the richest county in Idaho, where numerous celebrities, including Bruce Willis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have second homes - was not an ideal place for a trial.
First, the case marks only the second murder in Blaine County in 25 years, Thomas said, and garnered heavy attention in the local media.
Second, the Johnsons were a well-known family in Bellevue, a town of 2,115. Alan was part owner of a successful landscaping company, and Diana had recently started working for a financial firm after a long tenure at a medical clinic.
In fact, about 75 percent of potential jurors in Blaine County were disqualified because they said they knew the family too well, already believed Sarah was guilty, or cited financial hardship that would prevent them from serving.
Douglas R. Scott