An Aurora woman who went on a shooting rampage through the home of her 74-year-old stepmother days before Christmas in 2009 was found guilty Thursday of killing her stepmother and attempting to murder her stepsister.
Defense attorneys had argued that the woman, 46- year-old Cristina Wanda Sears, was not guilty by reason of insanity for the killing of Eleanor J. Sears and the attempted murder of Joy L. Pigon, 51. But it took an Adams County jury just a little more than an hour to convict her of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, multiple assault charges and menacing.
An Adams County District Court judge sentenced Sears to life in prison for the murder plus the maximum 48 years for attempted murder — sentences to be served consecutively.
“I’ve been doing this for 24 years,” lead prosecutor Don Quick said. “It (the verdict) is the right thing to happen, but a 74-year-old grandmother is dead, and Joy has nine holes in her body. The tragedy is just tempered with the fact that we did the best we could to bring this to some resolution, but the family is going to wake up tomorrow and have what they have.”
Sears’ public defenders, Stefanie Gaffigan and Sara Strufing, declined to comment. Gaffigan said the case would be forwarded for appeals that could take years.
The defense had claimed, in part, that the anti-smoking drug Chantix was to blame for Sears’ aggressive behavior. Information about the drug from the National Institutes of Health says some people have reported changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts while taking it.
“It’s not what impacted her,” Quick said. “What impacted her was that she had not gotten her inheritance.”
