A San Diego woman lashed out at the judge as she was sentenced to 80 years for killing her husband and her daughter in the family's condo five years ago.
"I shot him because he shot my daughter," Regina Johnson yelled out in court Friday as she was being sentenced.
Johnson does not deny she killed her 56-year-old husband, Reuben Johnson in May 2012. However, she was also convicted of shooting and killing her 14-year-old daughter, Aaliyah - something she denies.
When the judge began to impose sentence, Johnson shook her head and argued the judgment was unfair.
"How can you sit there and say that I killed my daughter? How?" Johnson asked the judge.
Judge Joan P. Weber sentenced Johnson to 80 years behind bars for both murders. Before she was led out of the courtroom Johnson told the judge, "I have no respect for you as a judge."
Before handing down her sentence, Judge Weber noted that several jurors cried during the testimony of this case.
“We will never really know what happened in that condo on May 29, 2012. There is only one person alive who really knows what happened," Weber said. "One thing we do know for sure Mrs. Johnson. Is that the story you told the jury is not what happened.”
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During her trial, Johnson testified that her slain husband shot their daughter when the teenager stepped between them during a fight. She said she picked up the gun from the ground and fired, fearing he might shoot her next.
However, prosecutors said evidence shows the defendant and killed them both.
"I don't know if it's that she can't reconcile with herself that she's done this, that she doesn't want to believe that she's done this but the evidence spoke," Deputy District Attorney Nicole Rooney during Friday's hearing.
Jurors convicted Johnson of two counts of second-degree murder. Both charges involved using a semi-automatic firearm.
She remained in the apartment with their bodies for three days without calling the police.
