After an evening and morning spent deliberating, a jury in Montana 19th Judicial District Court found Sarah Carpenter guilty on Wednesday of deliberate homicide and tampering with physical evidence in the January 2017 death of Travis Gillett.

Though Gillett’s mother cried when the verdict was read, she and the rest of the court contained most of their emotions.

Carpenter maintained the blank demeanor she kept during her testimony and most of the trial.

Over six days of testimony that began Aug. 6, the jury heard from Carpenter and the man she was arrested alongside, Ezra Skinner. Jurors also heard from expert witnesses for the prosecution, while defense attorney Greg Rapkotch only called Carpenter.

Carpenter and Skinner married in the time between Gillett’s death on Jan. 14, 2017, and their arrests on Aug. 24, 2017. In jail, Carpenter gave birth to twins that Skinner had fathered.

On March 9, 2018, Skinner came forward with a confession, accusing Carpenter of shooting Gillett to death. He revised his story March 19, a point Rapkotch returned to repeatedly when questioning his credibility.

On the stand, Carpenter accused Skinner of Gillett’s murder, claiming she had been protecting Skinner, whom she saw as a provider for her and her children.

The two offered contrasting and sometimes overlapping stories of events on and around Jan. 13 and 14, 2017.

Skinner painted Carpenter as manipulating and plotting, going so far as to pick Gillett up from a shelter and taking him home with the intention of throwing him from a bridge.

Skinner told of two separate trips into Lincoln County from Ponderay, Idaho, on Jan. 13. During the first, shorter trip, Skinner said he followed Carpenter while she drove with Gillett in her vehicle. During the second trip, Carpenter and Skinner were in Carpenter’s Trailblazer, Carpenter’s 8-month-old son with them, while they drove for up to 12 hours with a bound and sedated Gillett in the back.

In the second trip, Skinner described reaching Highway 2 by way of Highway 56, heading through Libby to the Rexford Bridge north of Libby Dam, returning the way they came, and eventually traveling the Yaak River Road to mile marker 48, where Gillett’s body was later found.

Skinner said they stopped more than once to contemplate throwing Gillett from a height.

In the Yaak, Skinner said Carpenter ordered Gillett down an embankment and shot him. They returned to the scene to look for a government benefit card Carpenter had dropped, and Skinner said she shot Gillett again at close range.

Carpenter countered that the night Skinner said they took the trip, she was in her bedroom with Gillett, and both were intoxicated. She claimed Skinner bound Gillett with duct tape, rope and a blanket, and kidnapped him.

Carpenter said Skinner returned hours later and took her with him as far as the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak, about 20 miles from where Gillett’s body was found.

She said that accounted for how they were recorded on the bar’s surveillance video on Jan. 14 about 1:30 p.m.

Skinner said they were recorded when returning from Carpenter having killed Gillett. They stopped when Carpenter wanted a drink.

The tampering charge came from Skinner and Carpenter initially concealing and later selling Skinner’s gun to a relative of Carpenter while at a wedding in Texas.

Skinner reached a plea agreement with Lincoln County Attorney Marcia Boris, pleading guilty to the tampering charge.

Skinner will not be sentenced until October. His agreement stipulates the maximum 10-year sentence, but he could be eligible for parole within two years if he is given credit for time served in the Lincoln County Jail.

However, Judge Matthew Cuffe is not bound by the plea agreement.

Carpenter is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2. She faces the possibility of life in prison.

Circles in circles

For most of the trial, Carpenter wore no expression. She cried once during direct testimony when she said she was terrified to see Gillett’s family in court, and again when she talked about her children.

In statements made to police after he came forward, Skinner accused Carpenter of approaching him Jan. 12, 2017, with a plan to murder Gillett. Shortly before Gillett’s death, Carpenter removed a no-contact order against Gillett.

Until Carpenter shot Gillett, Skinner said he believed the plan was to throw Gillett from a bridge. He testified that as they drove up the Yaak River Road from Highway 2, he began to think the trip may have just been a “big prank.”

During direct examination, Skinner broke into tears several times, alternating into distant stares when he was not answering questions.

When shown pictures of Gillett’s body as it was found on the edge of a woods, Skinner started crying and glanced toward Gillet’s family.

Under cross examination by Rapkotch, Skinner betrayed fewer emotions, though as his testimony stretched into seven hours, he began to show fatigue.

Rapkotch focused on when Skinner knew the terms of his plea deal, and presented a video in which Skinner’s attorney told him there was “light at the end of the tunnel” as he received Skinner’s permission to offer the County Attorney’s Office his testimony.

In closing statements, Rapkotch characterized the “light” as referring to Skinner knowing what the plea deal would be, though Skinner’s attorney had not spoken with the County Attorney’s Office at the time of the video.

In her rebuttal, Boris said Skinner pleaded to the charge he was guilty of, and the evidence corroborated his story.

Carpenter testified she wrote down road numbers while Skinner was taking her to the Yaak because she was worried something was wrong.

After Carpenter was excused, Boris demonstrated through testimony from Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Duane Rhodes that the road numbers couldn’t be seen along the route Carpenter claimed.

While cross examining Carpenter, Boris also pointed out that a text message Carpenter sent to Skinner saying that Gillett was at her home, in the bathroom, taking drugs was sent only a little more than four hours before Carpenter sent a text from Gillett’s phone that was intended to help cover up the incident.

Carpenter claimed she must have sent the text to Skinner — who she claimed had already kidnapped Gillett — due to her level of intoxication.

While questioning the time between texts, Boris handed Carpenter two Google Maps printouts of routes from Ponderay to the Yaak. Neither route predicted enough time for Skinner to make the trip given the texts.

However, after Boris handed Carpenter the maps, Carpenter added a detail to her explanation of the road numbers. It was possible, she said, that she looked up the roads on Google and took the numbers from there. Carpenter had not mentioned Google maps previously in her testimony.

When cross examining Rhodes, Rapkotch claimed Rhodes’ investigation of the road numbers was incomplete because he had not checked to see if the road numbers could be found using Google.