Marine Found Guilty Of UNT Student's Murder
UPDATE: A jury has sentenced Eric Johnson to 44 years in prison for the murder of UNT student Sara Mutschlechner.
DENTON (KRLD) - A Marine from North Texas has been found guilty by a Denton County jury in the shooting death of a University of North Texas student on New Year's Day of last year.
Eric Johnson, a 21-year-old Fort Worth native shot and killed UNT student Sara Mutschlechner. The 20-year-old college junior was acting as a designated driver, taking three friends home after a New Year's Eve party.
Mutschlechner was at an intersection about two miles away from the college campus when, police said, she and her friends got into an argument with some young men in an SUV. As the two vehicles drove off, investigators explained that someone in that SUV opened fire, hitting Mutschlechner in the head.
Johnson was arrested days later, at a Marine Corps air base in Yuma, Arizona. He has been sitting in jail ever since, held on a $1 million bail.
At the time, police said that the Fort Worth native admitted to being the shooter. The Denton Record Chronicle reported that prosecutors offered Johnson a plea bargain, but would not elaborate on what that entailed or why Johnson and his attorneys refused the deal.
