- FEMALE NARRATOR: Stevie and Sarah Allman
were sisters, cut from vastly different cloths.
- She represented all of the good things in people,
and I think her sister represented
some of the worst things in people.
- She was grounded. She was financially secure.
Whereas her sister's life had always been
haphazard and unstable.
- NARRATOR: And when a brazen crime is unleashed
on their childhood home, all hell breaks loose.
- The home was engulfed in flames.
It was completely torched.
- She was burnt really bad.
- NARRATOR: The aftermath will lead investigators
on a desperate search for answers.
- She was frightened at the threats
that they were receiving from the drug dealers.
- She was nowhere to be found.
- We were all in shock, someone was asking,
"Where is your sister? Where is your sister?"
- NARRATOR: But the trail leaves them dead in their tracks.
- I was told we were going there to look for a body.
- They determined that not only was she dead
but that she had also been dismembered.
- NARRATOR: In a tale of sibling rivalry,
it seems one was an angel.
- NARRATOR: While the other a devil in disguise.
- I think it was a good versus evil.
- She thought about it before she did it,
and she planned it,
and then she executed her plan.
- This is what horror movies are made of.
Frightening.
- *
- NARRATOR: Oakland, California.
A city in the Bay Area
well known for its acceptance and diversity.
But in the late 1990's, drugs had flooded the streets
of this once proud community.
- In the '90s, we had a very large epidemic of shootings.
The city had a lot of gang activity going on,
a lot of drug activity going on.
- Oakland's a beautiful city, especially around Lake Merritt.
But Oakland could be like any other big city.
You have your ins, your outs.
Your ups and downs, and your good and your bad.
- NARRATOR: And on the evening of July 1, 1997,
East Oakland resident Monica Boyette
gets a glimpse of the bad
when she hears a frantic knock at her door.
- A lady came to my door and told me that she needed help.
- NARRATOR: Monica recognizes the woman
as one of the Allman sisters who live nearby.
- I could not tell which one of the sisters it was.
She was burnt really bad.
She said someone threw something in her window.
- NARRATOR: That's when Monica looks down the street
to see the woman's home ablaze.
- You could hear people, "It's a fire, it's a fire."
People were saying that.
- The house was fully in flames
when the fire department arrived.
- I had came home from work, and I noticed
a bunch of fire trucks out there,
and the home was engulfed in flames.
It was completely torched.
- There would not have even been an attempt to go into the house
to try and save anyone
because it was so fully engulfed in flames.
- NARRATOR: As firefighters rush to extinguish the inferno,
paramedics tend to the woman's wounds.
- She had first and second degree,
what they say are deflective burns
on her hands, her arms and her legs.
- I don't believe they concluded that there were
any life-threatening injuries,
but that she did need immediate medical attention.
- NARRATOR: The woman identifies herself to first responders
as 52-year-old Stevie Allman,
the owner of the home that she shares with her sister,
47-year-old Sarah Mitchell.
Stevie stuns authorities when she claims
the fire was the result of drug dealers
throwing firebombs through her window.
- She alleged that several individuals, uh,
surrounded the house and firebombed the house.
- The assumption was the drug dealers had,
had attempted to burn her out of the house.
- All police know is that Stevie Allman has been injured,
but we don't know why drug dealers
would want to attack her.
- NARRATOR: First responders attempt to calm Stevie down
as she is loaded into the ambulance,
but just as the doors close,
surrounding neighbors make a terrifying realization.
- We were all in shock, someone was asking, um,
the lady that came to my home, "Where is your sister?
Where is your sister?"
- NARRATOR: Stevie says her sister Sarah
is in a different state and had only recently moved out.
As the ambulance pulls away,
the Allman sisters' childhood home is left in ashes.
California natives Sarah and Stevie Allman
moved to Oakland, California at a young age
with their mother and seven siblings.
- They had been in Oakland since the 1950s
and grew up in that house that they were living at.
- NARRATOR: With her fatather out of the picture,
Stevie was tasked with helping her older sister Leotta
look after their younger siblings, including Sarah.
- The girls grew up in a environment
where there's a single parent.
The father disappeared and that their mom raised them.
So, the kids were relied on a lot to help out everybody else.
And that Stevie was one of those people that was relied on
at an early age to help out the family.
- There was a special bond between Stevie
and her sister who is five years her junior.
Her name is Sarah.
It wasn't uncommon for people to mistake them for twins.
- NARRATOR: Though she always looked up to Stevie,
Sarah quickly became accustomed
to walking in her older sister's shadow.
- Stevie was a very sweet person.
One of the absolute rocks of that family.
- NARRATOR: By the early 1970s,
the Allman children had left the nest
with the exception of Stevie.
- Stevie stays in the home with her mother.
And she has a good job working for a local family business.
- Stevie Allman was known to be very industrious,
uh, very hard worker.
And this was a company that made utility trucks.
And Stevie was one of that family's
most valuable employees.
- NARRATOR: After nearly 20 years with the company,
Stevie's dedication was recognized with a sizable bonus.
- Stevie Allman was one of the two employees
that they gave over $100,000 to
as part of her reward in her having been such a
hard-working, dependable employee.
- NARRATOR: While the other Allman children
had established lives of their own,
Stevie and Sarah remained close,
proving that even with family, opposites attract.
- Even though Stevie and Sarah were very close
and looked alike, that's about where it ends
in terms of their individual characters.
Stevie was the hard worker. She was grounded.
She was employed.
Whereas Sarah lived a more frivolous lifestyle.
Did not hold down jobs.
- NARRATOR: By her thirties, Sarah found herself divorced
with three young kids and a new last name, Mitchell.
- Sarah would meet a man, move in with him,
live with the man, and it would fall apart.
And then she'd wind up back
living with Stevie and her mother.
- NARRATOR: In the early 90's,
Stevie and her mother welcomed
Sarah and her kids back with open arms.
- The kind of arrangement that they had is that Stevie worked
at her company and Sarah, who did not work,
was responsible for keeping the house clean
and doing all the cooking.
- NARRATOR: After a few years,
Sarah's kids grew up and moved out,
while she remained with her sister and mother.
Then, in 1994, the matriarch of the family passed away
and left the home to her children.
- Once Stevie and Sarah's mother died,
there was a big decision to make,
what to do with that beloved home that they lived in.
It was bought by their mother, had so many memories.
Stevie could not stand to part with it.
So, she bought it outright.
- NARRATOR: Stevie agreed to pay her siblings
for their shares of the home and became the sole owner,
and she allowed Sarah to remain in the house.
But while the house hadn't changed much,
the city of Oakland had.
- Mid to late '90s, Oakland was basically
crime infested with a lot of drug dealers.
Uh, drugs were cheap then, and so crime was pretty rampant.
There was a lot of drug wars going on,
and other crimes related to drugs,
burglaries, car-jackings, robberies, homicides,
everything.
- NARRATOR: That's when the two sisters decided
they would no longer be passive observers.
- Officers that were community policing officers
worked closely with the community
to solve neighborhood crimes.
So, we asked the residents to be our partners in this.
They were our eyes and ears
for the Oakland Police Department.
- NARRATOR: But on July 1, 1997,
it seems the sisters' noble efforts
to protect the neighborhood
may have put them in the line of fire.
Firefighters have just extinguished a massive fire
at the east Oakland home
of Stevie Allman and Sarah Mitchell.
- The framework of the house was still existing,
but for the most part, the fire was extensive.
- NARRATOR: The homeowner, 52-year-old Stevie Allman,
has been transported to the hospital with multiple burns.
Stevie claimed that the home had been firebombed
by drug dealers retaliating for
Stevie filming their illegal activities for police.
- Stevie said that her intentions were
to have them arrested, and they would be out of the neighborhood
and the neighborhood would be peaceful again.
- She said there were hooded individuals
running into the yard.
We were looking for three to four individuals.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
As detectives round up local drug dealers,
new information comes to light.
- They said if she ever got in the way of our business
or she ever caused us problems,
- Tit was easier to justgot iput a bullet in her head.
- NARRATOR: And a shocking twist turns the case upside down.
- They said, well, why is she filing
a missing person's report on Stevie Allman
and Stevie Allman's in the hospital?
- The spotlight shifts now to this person
that was in the hospital that is supposed to be
the anti-drug crusader who is now not the person
she says she is.
- NARRATOR: On July 1st, 1997,
a fire has destroyed the childhood home
of Stevie Allman and Sarah Mitchell.
With Sarah currently unaccounted for,
Oakland arson investigators are speaking to Stevie,
hoping to find out who targeted their home.
- This case has now gone to the arson unit,
and the first thing they want to do is go to the hospital
and get a statement from their victim, Stevie.
- NARRATOR: Stevie's theory is that local drug dealers
attacked her home.
- She responded that drug dealers
firebombed the house and threw Molotov cocktails
into the house. And um, that she ran through
the front door, uh, and suffered, uh, burn injuries
to her arms and legs.
- She was filming dope deals and prostitution,
and from my understanding, she wanted to try to
put an end to it.
- What she saw, she reported to the Oakland Police Department.
- NARRATOR: Stevie says she recognized the men
that threw Molotov cocktails as the same men
she videotaped dealing drugs.
Stevie goes on to explain that once the drug dealers
discovered they were being filmed,
they began threatening the Allman sisters.
- Stevie reveals to police that actually she and her sister
had received several threats over the last couple of months.
- Stevie told the officers that
Sarah had become frightened at the threats
that they were receiving from the drug dealers
and that she had moved out and no longer
wanted to live there out of fear of being retaliated against.
She indicated that Sarah had moved to Sparks, Nevada,
with her new boyfriend.
- NARRATOR: According to Stevie, not long after Sarah left,
the drug dealers made good on their threats.
Now that detectives have heard Stevie's account;
they ask for Sarah's contact information
to hear her version of events.
- We were trying to contact her to piece together
some of the details that we're finding a little confusing.
- They inquired could Stevie give them the phone number
to call Sarah.
Stevie said her address book had been burned in the fire.
- NARRATOR: Armed with only Stevie's statement for now,
detectives begin their search for the alleged arsonists.
- We were looking for individuals
in black hooded attire, you know, that had
set the house on fire.
I notified all the beat officers out there
to start giving me identifications
of all known dope dealers in the area.
- NARRATOR: On July 3rd, the hospital releases
a statement to the press on Stevie's behalf.
- In the statement, Stevie said that her intentions
in filming these people were to get them out of the,
to have them arrested, and they would be
out of the neighborhood, and the neighborhood
would be peaceful again.
- The meat of it was essentially her role in the community
and neighborhood watch and being careful
as members of the community
and not wanting the bad guys,
if you will, to take over.
And she was tired of it.
- The community was just very distraught, very upset,
very concerned, and I believe they rallied together quite well
to um, support her.
- She started getting donations,
and people asked if they could donate money.
And so, we managed the processing of any monetary gifts
that came through to her.
- The story had blown up into a national story
to the point where Stevie Allman was receiving phone calls
from the White House and the drugs czar,
and so the pressure on the Oakland Police Department
to solve the case was tremendous.
- NARRATOR: To aid in the efforts,
the governor of California offers a $50,000 reward
for anyone with information on the arsonists to come forward.
- There was a lot of high activity on our part
from law enforcement to, uh, pick these people up
for warrants, if they see 'em doing a deal in the street,
they'd get picked up for, uh, for sales of narcotics.
- I think the majority of the drug dealers that they spoke to,
uh, didn't even know what
the Oakland Police Department was talking about
when they asked about videotapes.
- They were matter-of-factly about it,
said if she ever got in the way of our business
or she ever caused us problems,
it was easier to just put a bullet in her head
as opposed to taking the chance
of getting hurt or injured with a firebomb.
- NARRATOR: While the alleged dealers acknowledge
they're not above violent retribution,
they insist they know nothing about the fire.
- That quite frankly is unusual because normally
someone is going to tell us something,
but in this case with a, with a high dollar reward,
with a lot of national attention on this case,
we're getting no information, which to me means
we're not turning up the right stone.
- NARRATOR: Detectives turn back to the arson report,
looking for any evidence they may have missed.
- They found several items that were inconsistent
with the house, or the room being firebombed.
- There was glass on the outside of the house
as opposed to the inside.
- Which was inconsistent with the statement
that a Molotov cocktail was thrown inside.
- NARRATOR: Detectives begin to think that the arsonist
was not a drug dealer at all,
but perhaps someone who held animosity
towards the Allman sisters.
Getting back in touch with Stevie Allman
could be the key to finding out what happened,
however, in the week following the fire,
they struggle to connect with her
or her sister, Sarah Mitchell.
- Nobody knew where the other sister was at.
Nobody knew where Sarah was at.
And that was something that I was going to have to
find out from Stevie.
A number of times I tried to speak to her,
but each time I went up to the hospital,
doctors were telling me she's been sedated.
She couldn't speak. There was all kind of
circumstances which meant that I couldn't get to Stevie
and talk to her myself.
- NARRATOR: With Stevie on tight medical supervision,
detectives are forced to wait for information.
But on July 7th, 1997, they receive surprising news
from the Santa Cruz police department.
- Leotta, a sibling of Stevie Allman,
had filed a missing person's report on Stevie Allman.
They said, well, why is she filing a missing person's report
on Stevie Allman and Stevie Allman's in the hospital?
- NARRATOR: Oakland detectives head to Santa Cruz
to inform Stevie and Sarah's sister, Leotta Belleville,
about what's transpired, and they are met
with a shocking accusation.
- The first thing Leotta told the detectives was
that the person in the hospital
is not Stevie Allman,
and that is Sarah Mitchell.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
The investigation reveals bad blood in the family.
- NARRATOR: And detectives begin to suspect a dubious cover up.
- Nobody would have somebody's identification,
and money like that belonging to Stevie
unless Stevie wasn't around.
My suspicion on this was that she had killed Stevie.
- NARRATOR: It's been one week
since the home of Stevie Allman was set ablaze.
And detectives have just learned
the woman they thought was Stevie
may actually be Stevie's sister, Sarah Mitchell.
- The spotlight shifts now to this person
that was in the hospital
that is supposed to be the anti-drug crusader
who is now not the person she says she is.
- NARRATOR: Stevie and Sarah's older sister, Leotta Belleville,
says she immediately knew something was amiss
when she saw the fire on the news
and reports were dubbing Stevie a crime crusader.
- Leotta told us that it was not Stevie Allman
that was in the hospital, but it was in fact Sarah.
- NARRATOR: Leotta says she received a phone call from Sarah
while she was in the hospital
and that Sarah had a believable reason for posing as Stevie.
- NARRATOR: Leotta goes on to share a disturbing premonition
she had about Stevie.
- Sarah Mitchell responded, "Stevie's in Lake Tahoe."
And a little bit later in the conversation,
the sister asks Sarah Mitchell a second time,
"But where's Stevie?"
And Sarah responded that Stevie's in Reno.
- At that point, Sarah Mitchell
basically ended the conversation with her sister.
- NARRATOR: Given Stevie and Sarah's relationship
over the last few years,
Leotta fears something terrible has happened.
- Stevie had been long frustrated
by Sarah being lazy,
not willing to work,
always looking for someone to take care of her,
and just not being a real productive person.
And that was at the heart of the bad blood
that had been going on between Stevie and Sarah.
- NARRATOR: When their mother died,
Leotta says the relationship between Stevie and Sarah
only grew more fraught...
when Sarah began impersonating Stevie and cashing her checks.
- NARRATOR: Leotta says Stevie had recently
expressed interest in leaving Oakland...
which only caused further friction
between her two sisters.
- Stevie began having discussions about wanting
to sell her house and go somewhere to retire.
And then Sarah, of course, questioned,
well if you sell the house, what's gonna happen to me?
And Stevie, of course, responded that she was not responsible
for taking care of Sarah for the rest of her life.
- NARRATOR: Armed with this new information,
detectives call the hospital for an immediate interview
with the woman claiming to be Stevie Allman.
- I found out from the hospital itself,
that she had been released.
- So, they did an all-points bulletin
on finding her.
And they eventually found her in the city
right next door to Oakland,
and she was in a hotel in the city of Alameda.
They brought her in for questioning.
- NARRATOR: The woman claiming to be Stevie
sticks to her original story, but detectives aren't convinced.
- The first thing I noticed was the burns
on the front of her arms, the front of her legs.
But it was only on the front, meaning to me
that she was well-aware of where the fire was at,
and she wasn't engulfed in the fire.
- NARRATOR: Detectives change course
and press the woman about Leotta's allegations.
- She was adamant that she was Stevie Allman,
and that her sister Leotta
never knew what she was talking about.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask for identification.
As she opens up her purse,
investigators spot two sets of IDs.
- She had a lot of identification on her
that belonged to Sarah,
and she had Stevie Allman's identification on her.
So, at that point,
I'm also confused as to who I'm talking to,
whether I'm talking to Stevie or Sarah.
Plus, she had also a lot of checks in her purse
of donations that were written to Stevie Allman.
- Police obviously ask her,
"Why do you have two sets of identification?"
- She said that they often carry each other's identification,
which made no sense to me in as much as she said that
Sarah was off with her boyfriend in Nevada.
Meaning, doesn't she need that identification for her own self?
- It reached a point in the interview,
and it became clear to the detectives
that she was never going to admit
that she was Sarah Mitchell.
- I told her that we'd like to get her fingerprinted,
so that I could find out who I'm talking to.
At that point, she didn't really want to talk much anymore.
- NARRATOR: It only takes police 45 minutes
to receive the fingerprint match results and determine
which Allman sister is sitting in front of them.
- The fingerprint return said that she was Sarah Mitchell.
- It pretty much vindicated a lot of my suspicions.
We knew that she was Sarah and now where was Stevie?
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
An elaborate scheme is laid bare.
- What they found was that all of the bank accounts
had been cleaned out.
- NARRATOR: And detectives unearth a chilling discovery.
- He opened the freezer and saw what looked like an elbow.
- It was just disbelief,
just never seen anything like this before in my career.
Just total shock.
- NARRATOR: Oakland detectives have just determined
that 47-year-old Sarah Mitchell
has been posing as her sister, Stevie Allman,
prompting the question, if this is Sarah,
where is Stevie?
- She was very nervous. When we came back into the room,
and approached her about knowing that she was Sarah,
she denied it.
- She completely shut down.
She wouldn't answer any questions
and all questioning stopped once she demanded a lawyer.
- At that point, Sergeant Hughes arrested her for forgery.
- NARRATOR: With Sarah in a cell and an APB out
for the real Stevie Allman,
detectives hold Sarah Mitchell on charges of forgery
and providing a false name to police.
- They went and looked at Stevie Allman's bank accounts.
And what they found was that all of the bank accounts
had been cleaned out.
So they wanted the video of those transactions.
And on every single one of those transactions,
they found Sarah Mitchell had withdrawn all the money.
- NARRATOR: While there were physical similarities
between the sisters, investigators believe
they were distinct enough to identify the woman
in the footage as Sarah and not Stevie.
- She was cashing checks that were issued to Stevie Allman
that, uh, that she wasn't entitled to cash.
There were other incidents that Sarah was posing as Stevie.
I think attempts to try to get retirement checks,
and she was trying to do a total identity switch.
- NARRATOR: To detectives, this can only mean one thing.
- My early suspicion on this was that she had killed Stevie.
And because nobody would have somebody's identification
and money like that, uh, belonging to Stevie
unless Stevie wasn't around.
- NARRATOR: On July 15th, 1997,
two weeks after the Allman home went up in flames,
detectives secure a search warrant for the property.
- In 1997, I was one of the
senior crime scene investigators in our unit.
The day I was asked to respond with the investigators,
I was told we were going there to look for a body.
So, we would search it from top to bottom
and turn it inside out if we had to.
- NARRATOR: While much of the home was destroyed,
some items survived the fire.
- I entered the house, and it was severely burnt.
Um, you could smell the charred wood.
And the room was cold and very dark.
There was no electricity. And as I walked in,
they brought me with their flashlights
and guided me to the kitchen area,
which was just past the living room.
- Two of the investigators went into the kitchen,
and they walked over to the, uh, freezer.
And so, using a flashlight opened the freezer
and saw what looked like an elbow
protruding out from the garbage bag.
- I reached inside the freezer box,
and I was able to grab a hold of what I believe was her arm,
and I tried to
feel for a pulse,
but there was nothing.
She was, she was deceased.
- It was clear that it was a female,
but obviously, it would take the coroner
to do an actual identification.
- It wasn't confirmed yet,
but it was my assumption that it was Stevie.
- NARRATOR: The entire freezer
is moved to the coroner's office for an autopsy.
- I was there as we un-taped the freezer box,
and then as the body was removed,
I think there was at least two bags.
- NARRATOR: As they open the bags,
authorities are met with a gruesome sight.
- It was at that point, they determined that
not only was she dead but that she had also been dismembered.
- She had been cut in half from the waist up.
And then the lower torso from her waist
down to about above her knees.
And then the last part that came out was the-the legs.
We had four body parts all together.
It was just disbelief,
and just never seen anything like this before in my career.
This is what horror movies are made of.
Frightening.
- NARRATOR: The damage to the head
was the obvious cause of death.
- Seeing the results of the autopsy was that
Stevie Allman died of blunt trauma.
Blunt trauma to the head
where she received numerous blows,
maybe as many as 20 blows likely with a crowbar,
but an instrument like that caused her to die.
- NARRATOR: Because the remains had been well preserved,
investigators feel confident
with the preliminary identification of the body
as Stevie Allman.
Back at the home, CSIs look for clues amongst the wreckage
to piece together how the crime unfolded.
- They went into the front bedroom,
which is the room that was Stevie Allman's bedroom.
And they went in and placed the luminol
on the floors and the walls,
and the room lit up like a Christmas tree.
So that confirmed that Stevie Allman
had been murdered in that bedroom.
- NARRATOR: Authorities find more grisly clues
in the bathroom.
- I did see the tub
that had the skill saw marks on the porcelain tub,
which is where she had Stevie's legs
draped over the side of the tub and cut the legs off.
- NARRATOR: Despite the condition of the burned home,
authorities are able to recover blood samples,
as well as several possible murder weapons.
- I can tell you there were quite a few things that, uh,
they asked me to recover. A skill-saw,
hammer, some knives,
there was probably close to 40 pieces of evidence collected.
- NARRATOR: On July 23rd, 1997,
Sarah Mitchell is officially charged
with the murder of her sister, Stevie Allman.
- We was totally shocked. We didn't realize
we had a murderer right here in our own neighborhood.
I mean, if she'd have killed her sister, she'd have killed me.
She'd have killed you. She'd have killed anybody.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Sarah's deception causes an uproar in the community.
- Here you are, a woman who had blamed the drug dealers
for something so horrific that you yourself had done.
- NARRATOR: But prosecutors face an uphill battle
to bring an alleged killer to justice.
- The defense strategy was to focus on the fact
that we did not have any direct evidence.
That throughout the case, the prosecution has failed
to put one witness on the stand that saw anything.
- NARRATOR: Oakland detectives have arrested
47-year-old Sarah Mitchell for the impersonation and murder
of her older sister, Stevie Allman.
- It was shocking to hear something like that,
what happened especially right next door to me.
- We just felt duped, period.
Everyone was angry at that point
because here you are,
a woman who had blamed the drug dealers
for something so horrific that you yourself had done.
- NARRATOR: In November of 2000, Sarah Mitchell's
much-anticipated trial gets underway.
- I spent quite a bit of time
establishing the relationships
between Sarah Mitchell and Stevie Allman.
So that the jury could understand
how someone can do this to their own sister.
We focused on the actual evidence.
In terms of who had access to Stevie Allman
that they could walk into her room at night
and beat her to death.
And then you close the case down with the motive.
And in this case, it was a financial gain motive
that was the reason behind this whole case.
We focused on voluminous numbers of photographs
of Sarah Mitchell in the bank
withdrawing her sister's money.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors theorize that
on the night of June 30th, 1997, while Stevie was sleeping,
Sarah walked into her sister's bedroom
with horrific intentions.
- According to prosecutors, she sneaks into her sister's bedroom
in the middle of the night. She's armed.
She begins bludgeoning Stevie's head.
And over and over again.
Then she drags the body from the bed
across the floor into the bathroom
where she proceeds to cut her sister into pieces with a saw.
- I don't understand the mentality
of how a sister could kill another sister
in such a dramatic and gruesome way.
It's just-it's beyond me. I can't explain it.
- NARRATOR: According to prosecutors,
the evidence against Sarah is overwhelming.
- You show the jury what happened that night,
what was the instrumentality that was used,
the dismemberment of the body,
the attempt to cover up the blood spatter
that was all over the walls, and the floor, in the bedroom
by firebombing the house from the inside,
and then claiming drug dealers threw a Molotov cocktail,
and then you show the jury the photo of the glass
outside the house as opposed to inside the house.
- NARRATOR: Ultimately, the state's case was enough
to convince the jury, and on November 21st, 2000,
Sarah Mitchell is found guilty of murder.
- I believe the ultimate verdict in finding her guilty
was appropriate considering
the evidence that was stacked up all around them and around her.
- She thought about it before she did it,
and she planned it, and then she executed her plan.
And therefore, they found that she premeditated the murder,
which is first-degree murder in California.
- NARRATOR: At her sentencing hearing on December 4th, 2000,
surprisingly, Sarah's family pleads for her life.
- They had been hurt enough,
and to take the life
of the second sister
would just be another stab in the heart.
- Her family, from what I understand,
did not want the death penalty.
And now she's left to live her life behind bars.
Sometimes maybe death isn't really a punishment,
but life behind bars is.
- Anyone in their right mind, right, would not
think to do something so horrific.
If you know, your sister is actually taking care of you,
providing for you, has a home for you,
and taking care of your every need,
and then you turn around and this is how you repay them?
- At the end of the day, I think it just boils down to
money, jealousy, pure just greed and evil.
- NARRATOR: And though Stevie's life ended tragically,
the crime will never overshadow her memory.
- She cared for her mother,
she cared for her siblings.
She was just a person of high integrity, hard worker.
I mean, she represented all of the good things in people,
and I think her sister Sarah
represented some of the worst things in people.
- *