LAWRENCE, Kan. — On the second day of the first-degree murder trial of Sarah Gonzalez McLinn, 20, jurors listened to the confession recorded by police after her arrest and return to Kansas in late January 2014.
McLinn is standing trial in Douglas County for the brutal murder of her roommate, Harold “Hal” Sasko, 52, a businessman who owned a CiCi’s Pizza restaurant in Lawrence and two others in Topeka.
Sasko was killed Jan. 14, 2014. He had been drugged, bound and his throat cut. He wasn’t found for three days. McLinn was missing along with Sasko’s 2008 Nissan Altima. On January 25, McLinn was found in Sasko’s car illegally camping in the Florida Everglades and taken into federal custody on an unrelated drug charge. She was soon returned to Kansas.
On Tuesday morning, March 17, the trial began with opening statements, at which time McLinn’s attorney, Carl Cornwell, told jurors that McLinn suffers from mental illness, causing her to have two personalities.
Then the prosecution began its case. For more on Tuesday’s developments, click here.
Lawrence Journal-World reporter Caitlin Doornbos is at the courthouse and tweeting developments. Doornbos reports that in the confession jurors are hearing, McLinn admitted that for two years she’d been thinking about killing someone.
When asked what she most regrets, she replied “Hurting my sister and my family.”
If McLinn is found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and the felony theft of Sasko’s vehicle, she would likely receive the ‘hard-50’ penalty due to the aggravated findings of this case. According to the prosecutor, in the state of Kansas, the punishment would normally be life in prison with a chance for parole after just 25 years.
She is currently being held on a $1 million bond.
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Footage of press conference held on Monday:
