Posted on 12/16/2004 5:23:12 PM PST by mylife
Woman Gets Life in Grisly Murder
San Bernardino County resident admitted she shot and dismembered Korean War vet in 1999.
By Lance Pugmire Times Staff Writer
December 16, 2004
A San Bernardino County woman convicted of murdering a Korean War veteran, and who told police she dismembered his body with a chain saw and rolled his head down a hill off Mt. Baldy Road, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Marcia Ann Johnson, 44, and her partner drained the bank accounts and sold the home of the victim, Mt. Baldy resident Jack Irwin, after the grisly 1999 murder.
Johnson filed a missing persons report, saying that she had dropped off Irwin, 71, at a train station for a trip to Washington state and he had never returned.
Read the rest here.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Sounds like a lovely woman :(
no foolin. yeesh
I want to see the bear facts !
Screw the life sentencing crap. Fry the witch!
Death Sentence = life sentence in Kollyvornia
Oh, it was all just a silly misunderstanding...
I know. It's sad.
TX would burn her like the Salem Witch trials.
I'm trying to maintain outrage & suppress chuckles at the same time.
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/state/20041103234655.shtmlhttp://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/state/20041103234655.shtml
RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A jury convicted a woman who confessed to shooting a 71-year-old man to death, dismembering him with a chain saw and then looting his estate.
Marcia Ann Johnson, 44, was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder and 25 other counts related to the 1999 slaying of Jack Irwin. She faces up to life in prison with no possibility of parole when she is sentenced Dec. 15.
Johnson was arrested two years after Irwin, a Korean War veteran, vanished from his cabin on Mount Baldy.
He had befriended Johnson and her partner, Judy Gellert, when they expressed interest in renting his cabin. The pair ultimately persuaded Irwin to name them in his financial trust and grant them access to his bank accounts, authorities said.
In a videotaped interview with San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives, Johnson said she shot Irwin in the back of the head. She told detectives she used a chain saw to cut off his head, hands and feet and disposed of the remains on Mount Baldy. Irwin’s remains have not been found.
Johnson also confessed she shot Irwin in the back of the head because he had criticized Gellert and had flirted with her and exposed himself to her.
During trial, prosecutors said the pair defrauded Irwin’s estate of an estimated $450,000 by cashing his retirement checks, selling his car and claiming a fire insurance loss against the cabin.
"It was very shocking to hear that intricate detail of the dismemberment," said jury foreman George Medeiros. "That part of the story was actually kind of irrelevant to us because we were focused solely on the specific count of murder, but I would say that, in our minds, her doing that fit her character."
During trial defense attorney Stephan J. Willms argued that Johnson’s descriptions of the killing were delusions triggered by bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse. Johnson did not testify.
Besides the murder charge, the jury found Johnson guilty of burglary, grand theft and insurance fraud, among other counts. Gellert already pleaded guilty to one count of receiving stolen property in exchange for testifying against Johnson.
If a judge determines on Nov. 15 that Gellert’s testimony was truthful, she will be sentenced to up to one year in prison, three years’ probation and ordered to pay the county $150,000 in restitution.
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