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McAtasney looked straight ahead as the verdict was read, and his defense attorney, Carlos Diaz-Cobo, said his client was ‘visibly upset’ but had no tears in his eyes. ‘There is an appeal to be had here,’ he said.
After the guilty counts were read, members of Stern’s family hugged each other and cried. Detectives on the case, including lead Detective Brian Weisbrot, shook hands and hugged.
McAtasney now faces life in prison at his sentencing May 24.
The jury’s decision came one day after the panel started deliberations in Superior Court in Freehold,
where prosecutors presented 25 witnesses and the defense presented just three.
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Diaz-Cobo framed his client as an immature young adult who was known to make up stories. That was the case, Diaz-Cobo said, when McAtasney got into his friend Anthony Curry’s car and described in chilling detail how he strangled Stern and then timed her death. The confession was
captured on a secret cameraplaced in Curry’s car by detectives.
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‘It’s gut-wrenching, it’s hurtful,’ Michael Stern said of the video after the verdict came out. ‘To think that someone pretending to be her friend actually did that to her without any remorse. It’s painful. It’s sad. It’s just horrible.’
Throughout the duration of the trial, Michael Stern sat in the second row of the courtroom flanked by Sarah’s extended family. The McAtasney family sat on the opposite side of the courtroom.
In the well of the courtroom, the defense table and the table where the two prosecutors, Doyle and Decker, sat were stacked. That made it nearly impossible to see McAtasney’s face during the trial. Occasionally he would lean over and whisper in his attorney’s ear.
On one day, several of McAtasney’s friends sat in the courtroom and he turned to them and gave a thumbs-up after they said his name.
But on most days, he sat silently and stared ahead at Judge Richard English. The only time McAtasney spoke was to tell English that his choice was ‘to remain silent’ and not testify.
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The trial was thrown into chaos after two jurors were dismissed following a Facebook comment one of them posted about sitting on the jury.
The case will now reach a national stage when specials air on both ‘20/20’ and ‘Dateline.’” (BBM)
Sarah Stern’s childhood friend found guilty of strangling her, dumping her body
.