DENTON, Texas (AP) — A Marine vet has been convicted in the New Year’s Day 2016 fatal shooting of a University of North Texas student when people in two vehicles argued after a party.
Jurors in Denton on Monday convicted 21-year-old of murder in the death of 20-year-old Sara Mutschlechner of Martindale. Johnson was a corporal on active duty at the time of the murder and faces up to life in prison in the penalty phase.
Denton police say people from both vehicles attended the same New Year’s Eve party. An affidavit says the shooting happened when men in an SUV made sexual remarks toward Mutschlechner, who was driving another vehicle, and a female riding with her.
Johnson was later arrested at a Marine Corps facility in Yuma, Arizona, then discharged.
He was associated with an address in Fort Worth, 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Denton.
