Sarah Johnson is serving two life sentences for the brutal murder of her parents.
(Blaine Country Sheriff's Department)"Her and my Mom didn't get along," Matt testified. "It was fairly rocky. Constant fighting, bickering back and forth!"
Sarah's lawyer, Robert Pangburn, built his entire defense on a "no blood, no guilt" strategy. He thought the fact that Sarah had no blood on herself proved that she could not have possibly pulled the trigger.
"Her mother's head literally exploded in a spherical fashion," Pangburn said. "The gun itself had blood on it. Yet there was none on her. Absolutely none."
After a five-week trial, Sarah's fate was in the hands of an Idaho jury. Her family, nearly at the breaking point, was convinced of her guilt.
"It takes a lot of evidence to convince a grandma that her granddaughter killed her daughter," her grandmother Pat Dishman remembered. "I mean, it had to be overwhelming."
Then, the verdict: guilty on both counts of first-degree murder. Sarah was sentenced to two consecutive life terms, plus 10 years for murdering her parents with a gun. She has no chance for parole.
Time has done little to ease the devastation for Alan and Diane Johnson's family and friends who continue to grieve the loss of their loved ones. Diane's mother, Pat Dishman, struggles with the words to explain how she feels.
"It's indescribable, it really is, the heartache and the sorrow."
There has been no date set for Sarah's final appeal.
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