Teen guilty of killing, cutting up friend
'A girl without a soul,' victim's mother says
Thursday, February 23, 2006 Posted: 1634 GMT (0034 HKT)
Sarah Kolb was convicted of killing a classmate and dismembering the body and dumping it in two counties.
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? DIXON, Illinois (AP) -- A teenage girl was convicted Wednesday of killing a 16-year-old classmate who was choked, beaten and sawed into pieces after an argument over boys.
Sarah Kolb, 17, faces of up to 60 years in prison.
The victim, Adrianne Reynolds, had just moved to East Moline, Illinois, from Texas about two months before the killing. Prosecutors said she was just trying to fit in at a new school but picked the wrong friend.
Reynolds' stepmother said Kolb is "a girl without a soul."
"She didn't cry, I didn't see nothing from her," Joann Reynolds said. (Watch what makes girls mean -- 3:38)
Kolb's court-appointed attorney, though, said the teen is not the vindictive killer portrayed by prosecutors. David Hoffman said he spoke briefly with Kolb after the verdict.
"She was scared and anxious and now she's probably as depressed as hell. That's the way I would be," Hoffman said.
Prosecutor: 'Wrong friend'
Adrianne Reynolds had just moved to East Moline from Texas about two months before she was killed. Prosecutors said she was just trying to fit in at a new school but picked the wrong friend.
The Reynolds and Kolb families wept quietly as the jury was polled. Kolb's family declined comment as they left the courthouse, but Hoffman said they were "devastated."
Jurors declined comment as they rushed past a crowd of reporters outside the courthouse.
On January 21, 2005, Kolb, Reynolds and schoolmate Cory Gregory were in Kolb's car at a fast-food restaurant when the fight began. Reynolds was killed and her body was burned, dismembered and hidden in two counties.
Gregory also is charged with murder and concealing a homicide and is scheduled to stand trial May 1.
Kolb showed no reaction as the verdict was read. Her family and Reynolds' family wept quietly as the jury was polled.
The trial was Kolb's second in three months. The first ended in a mistrial in November when a Rock Island County jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction. Her retrial was moved to Dixon, about 60 miles away.
Wrote about killing in journal
In the retrial, prosecutor Jeff Terronez said Kolb wrote in a class journal that she was going to kill Reynolds just hours before Reynolds was beaten and strangled in the car.
Terronez said Kolb was angry because Reynolds had shown interest in Kolb's boyfriend and had gone on a date with Gregory, her ex-boyfriend.
Defense attorney David Hoffman told jurors it was Gregory who killed Reynolds. But prosecutors said Kolb was still accountable because she choked and beat Reynolds before Gregory "finished her off."
Prosecutors say the two took the girl's body to Kolb's grandparents' farm and burned it, then returned two days later, sawed the body into pieces and dumped the remains on the farm and in Black Hawk State Park in Rock Island.
In her first trial, Kolb testified that Gregory strangled Reynolds, then hit Kolb and threatened to kill her, her family and her cats if she reported the crime. Gregory, who has pleaded not guilty, denied that account in a television interview.
Kolb did not testify in her second trial, and the defense rested without presenting a case.
Thats really sad to hear abt that girl who died 
Her body was sawed into pieces? Sheesh! I cannot believe it, That's a horrible way to hurt someone like that.