Conc3ept 

In May 2012 a 74-year-old grandmother in Michigan walked into her 17-year-old grandson's bedroom with a Glock. He was in gym shorts and socks, and after the first shots he called 911 and gasped: "My grandma shot me. I'm gonna die. Help." Her name was Sandra Layne. Jonathan Hoffman had been sent from Arizona to live with her and her husband in West Bloomfield Township while his parents were caring for his little sister, who had a brain tumor. He had a probation case and a drug problem, and on May 18, 2012, he tested positive for synthetic marijuana. That afternoon, back at the condo, Layne went upstairs with the gun. She fired 10 times in about 6 minutes and hit him six times, twice in the back. On the 911 recording the dispatcher keeps asking if he is still there. Then another shot goes off on the line, and Jonathan screams: "I got shot again." When police arrived she was still holding the pistol and said: "I murdered my grandson." He was dead on arrival at the hospital. In the video below, Layne sits in court in an orange jumpsuit while the call is played, then takes the stand. She says Jonathan demanded $2,000 and her car, kicked her and hit her in the head, and chased her through the condo. Asked how many times she fired, she says: "I don't know." A nurse who examined her after her arrest found no injuries, and she never called 911 herself. The jury played the call over and over and convicted her of second-degree murder. At sentencing her own daughter, Jonathan's mother, refused to call her "Mom": "Sandra Layne is pure evil and if given the opportunity would surely kill again." Layne sobbed, "I don't want to die in jail," and got at least 22 years. Defenders say she was a frightened 74-year-old alone with a teenager on drugs who had already hit her. Prosecutors say she loaded hollow-point bullets and hunted a boy in his socks for six minutes. Was Sandra Layne a terrified grandmother defending herself, or did she decide that afternoon that her grandson was not leaving that room alive?