Former Marine Found Guilty of Road Rage Murder of UNT Student

DENTON COUNTY (WBAP/KLIF News) – A Denton County jury found a former Marine guilty of murder on Monday in the road rage death of a UNT student on New Year’s Day in 2016.

Eric Johnson was convicted of killing Sara Mustchlechner while she was driving a group of sorority sisters home from a party.

Prosecutors said Mutschlechner and her friends got into an argument with Johnson and his friends, who had pulled up next to her car.

Johnson admitted that he fired the shots that killed Mutschlechner but claimed he meant to shoot over the car and didn’t mean to hit her.

He was arrested several days after the shooting at a Marine Corps base in Yuma, Arizona.

Legal analyst Tim Powers said Johnson’s attorneys faced an uphill battle when they argued that their client should have been convicted of manslaughter and not murder.

“If he didn’t think he did anything wrong or it was just a mistake, then why did he flee almost immediately. It’s very hard and typically defendants don’t do well under cross examination,” he said.

The penalty phase of Johnson’s trial started Monday afternoon. He faces up to life in prison.