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Health & Fitness

Trial Talk: Jurors Question Defendant Sandra Layne

Jurors pose questions to defendant Sandra Layne about some of her actions on the day she shot and killed her grandson, Jonathan Hoffman.

After Sandra Layne was questioned by her lawyer, Jerome Sabbota, and Assistant Prosecutor Kelli Megyesi, the jurors had a turn. Here are their questions and Layne's responses:

JUROR: Were you taking any medications on May 18, 2012?

LAYNE: I took Actose for diabetes and Synthroid for a thyroid condition.

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JUROR: Why didn't you call 9-1-1 from the basement?

NOTE: (Layne said she shot Jonathan Hoffman in the upstairs loft, and then he followed her downstairs. She shot him again in the kitchen and master bedroom. Then she went down the basement and stayed there for an unknown period of time before going back upstairs and delivering the final, fatal shots.)

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LAYNE: All I was thinking was that I had to hide. I was terrified. That was my thinking.

JUROR: Why did you think the gun was going to calm him down?

NOTE: (Layne told the court she went downstairs to get her gun because her grandson was very agitated - he was angry because Layne would not give him her car and money to leave the area after he failed a drug test earlier that day - and she wanted him to settle down. One might wonder why she didn't leave the house or simply stay downstairs until he did calm down. He was not armed and posed no danger to her.)

LAYNE: You don't know how you're going to act in a situation....That's just what I thought. I don't know why. I didn't know what to do. Someone else may have done something else, but that's what I did.

JUROR: There were shots fired and blood in the master bedroom and kitchen. Was he chasing you or were you chasing him?

LAYNE: I was trying to get away. I was being chased.

 

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