A jury reached a verdict against a young woman charged in the murder of her stepfather on Thursday, but the judge ordered it sealed until next week. Meanwhile, a surprise witness testified against Nathaniel Gann, who is also facing murder charges.
Brae Hansen, 19, is accused of recruiting her older brother, Nathaniel Gann, to kill 63-year-old Timothy MacNeil because she was mad at him.
The siblings are being tried together, but with separate juries.
Judge Frederic Link told the Hansen jurors that he didn't want to reveal their verdicts immediately because the Gann jury won't start deliberating until Friday.
The Hansen jury deliberated less than a day before reaching its verdicts.
"I don't want the other jury in any way to be affected by your decision," Link told the Hansen panelists. "Nobody knows what these are except you and me."
He ordered jurors to return Tuesday morning so the verdicts could be read.
Both Gann and Hansen face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder and lying in wait.
A 22-year-old woman testified in Gann's trial today that he was violent toward her when they dated in high school and forced her into unwanted sex.
The woman, now married and living in England, told a jury that Nathaniel Gann slapped her in the face in class and didn't react normally when she told him it hurt and that she didn't like it.
The witness said Gann, now 20, sexually abused her, as well.
She said the abuse happened when she was 15 and he was a year younger.
"He's raped me," the woman said, breaking into tears as she tried to elaborate. "He knew I didn't want to do that until I was married. It was so dear to me."
The witness said she cried and screamed to try to stop Gann from having sex with her, but he held her down. She aid she was too scared of Gann to tell anyone what happened.
The witness was called to rebut testimony that Gann was truthful and non-violent.
On July 19, 2007, MacNeil was tied up and shot four times as he arrived at his Rolando home by Gann, who drove out from Arizona to commit the crime after several days of planning by the siblings, prosecutor George Bennett said Wednesday.
"It is without an excuse, it is without justification, and it was accomplished by lying in wait," Bennett told jurors in his closing argument.
The prosecution alleges the defendants staged a home-invasion robbery, leaving Hansen tied up in a corner of the same room where MacNeil lay dead, to cover their tracks.
Hansen's attorney, Troy Britt, told jurors in his closing argument that tiny bits of evidence, when added together, show his client tried to back out of the plot.
Closing arguments in the Gann case are expected tomorrow.
Last year, jurors deadlocked 7-5 -- with the majority voting guilty -- on whether Gann was guilty of murdering MacNeil, a criminal defense attorney.
