he’s worth killing for? And that’s what they’re saying.”
JMD reminded the court that the case was not about stolen property and not about his client’s bizarre behavior. He again listed the many things the State could not prove. “There’s a hundred unanswered questions,” he stressed. After touching on the evidence the State had presented and explaining again why it wasn’t viable, he said, “We’re going to ask you, based on all the evidence you’ve heard—and mostly based on all the evidence you haven’t heard—to find my client not guilty of first-degree murder.
Brenda Beadle had the last word, and she spoke passionately about the victim she had never met yet had come to know so well. “For years, the defendant portrayed Cari as a conniving, jealous, obsessed stalker. But all along, it was her. She was all of those things.” She nodded at the image of the smiling woman. “This is the real Cari Farver. She was a bright, beautiful, hardworking mother, sister, daughter friend, coworker. And her life was violently cut short by this defendant’s twisted, obsessive, reprehensible acts of violence . . .”
Beadle asked the court to find Liz guilty. “Cari deserves justice, and so does Cari’s family.”
* * *
Judge Timothy Burns delivered his verdict on Wednesday morning, May 24. His eloquent speech touched the hearts of Cari’s loved ones, those who’d worked so hard to find the truth, and the prosecution team who’d expertly presented the evidence. His verdict included the powerful revelation that, “Cari Farver did not voluntarily disappear off the face of the Earth. Very sadly, she was murdered. The Court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intentionally killed Cari Farver with deliberate and premeditated malice on or about November 13, 2012, in Douglas County, Nebraska.
“The Court further finds beyond a reasonable doubt that during the defendant’s twisted plot of lies, deceit, and impersonations through digital messaging, the defendant, on or about August 16, 2013, intentionally caused damage to her residence and property inside her residence located here in Douglas County, Nebraska, by intentionally starting a fire.”
Jim Masteller had barely glanced at the defendant throughout the trial. He was too focused on his work to notice her. He looked at her now. Her expression was as placid as a lake on a breezeless day. Her only sign of distress was the scarlet hue creeping up her neck.
Garret had planned to be there for the verdict but arrived late. “I had to sit outside the courtroom,” he remembers. He learned of Liz’s fate when he saw her led away in cuffs. “I’ll never forget, as she left the courtroom, I was the last person she saw. We briefly locked eyes while they took her away.” Her eyes betrayed nothing, and he saw no tears. But there were lots of tears flowing among Cari’s family and friends as they gathered outside of the courtroom with the investigators to hug and congratulate each other. The verdict was exactly what they’d hoped for, but it was not a time of celebration. A guilty verdict did not bring their Cari home. They were relieved, and they were grateful to the judge. He had recognized the monster, and now the healing could begin.
When JMD was approached by TV reporters, he praised his opponents as he admitted defeat. “In my three or four decades of practicing law, it’s one of the most powerful presentations of circumstantial evidence that I’ve ever seen.” He’d done everything he could to defend Shanna, but the truth had won.
Shortly after the verdict, he got a phone call from his client. “I want to take the plea deal,” she announced. There had never been a formal offer for a plea deal. JMD recalls a vague reference to the possibility, with a prosecutor commenting that no deal would be considered unless Shanna revealed the location of the remains. JMD had mentioned that conversation to Shanna, but it was a moot point, because she’d insisted upon her innocence. He reminded her of that now. “Shanna, you told me you weren’t guilty,” he stressed, adding that even if she had been offered a deal, it was too late because she’d already been convicted.
Shanna Elizabeth Golyar was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and eighteen to twenty years for arson in the second degree. Judge Burns ordered that the sentences run consecutively. She is currently incarcerated at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska, the same prison that had once been home to Starkweather’s companion.