20/20 - Unholy Matrimony
Episode Date: March 29, 2025An open marriage, a secret affair and a sinister plot for murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
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Sabrina and Robert Lamone were really kind of an it couple.
So bubbly, so vivacious.
They were partying more. They were drinking a lot.
They open up their marriage, meaning other couples have come into the bedroom.
Robert, his words were, we're having too much fun,
and everything is fine.
Julie called me and told me
that there had been a terrible accident at the railroad,
and I asked her, what happened?
Where's my brother?
I'm yelling on the phone,
what's wrong with my brother?
He told us that my brother had been shot.
Are you thinking robbery? A robbery gone bad? he told us that my brother had been shot.
Are you thinking robbery?
A robbery gone bad?
This looked as though maybe it had been staged.
Some drawers were pulled out,
other drawers were not pulled out.
It screamed as being a staged crime scene.
But that crime scene is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hi, God.
We're on our knees very good.
We have been dirtbags. We've been sinners, we've been selfish, we've sinned.
For a whodunit that's boiling underneath.
This investigation takes cops down a very unusual road that involves God and David and Bathsheba and murder.
A monster took our Robert's life.
So as you're coming down Route 66 and you turn into the Silver Lakes community, it is hard to not compare this place to a desert oasis.
The Silver Lakes is a small community.
It's about 99 miles from Los Angeles,
halfway between Victorville and Barstow.
There are two lakes here.
It is a family-orientated place,
and there's so many opportunities for families
to have a very affordable living in a beautiful neighborhood.
Some people move to Silver Lakes to either retire or to have more of a private, like less city life.
And it's in Silver Lakes where Robert and Sabrina Limon live with their two children.
And just to put the icing on the cake of this picture of domesticity, the street they lived
on was Strawberry Lane.
Sabrina is my baby sister. She was born when I was 15 years old
and we've just had a bond ever since she was born.
We grew up in Barstow and I got married to Randy.
So I moved out at 18 and Randy and I had this little home
and so Sabrina would come and she would stay with us.
She was always trying to entertain.
She has such a talent just to be an amazing, funny person even when she was little.
And every time we'd take a picture, we'd do, let's do a Brina picture, and we would
all do our hands.
So it was just something that she took on when she was little,
and it stuck with her all this time.
She was just so sweet.
She just had just a heart for people, just sweet.
She was just so loving.
My dad had decided that he was going to retire,
and his dream was to retire in Prescott, Arizona.
So Sabrina was, I want to say, 13,
and she made a lot of wonderful friends there,
and that's where she met Robert, was in Prescott.
At the age of 18, Sabrina meets Robert Lamone, and it's an instant attraction.
Here he was with the big tattoo, Lamone, you know, tatted on the back of his head, but
he was a big teddy bear.
He wanted us to meet his girlfriend.
We were all sitting in the kitchen, and Robert pulls up in his truck and Sabrina gets out and I looked out
the window and I told mom, Robert's going to marry her.
Robert and Sabrina had a total connection and they started to go to church and then
when they were going to get married they were baptized together.
Sabrina and Robert got married in 2000.
The wedding was in Arizona and it was just a beautiful wedding.
I was the maid of honor and Sabrina was just a beautiful bride.
Not long after their wedding, Sabrina and Rob moved to Silver Lakes,
a low-key desert community in California.
And with the help of Julie's husband, Randy,
Rob gets a job working at BNSF Railroad in Barstow.
When they moved to Silver Lakes,
they went to church for a few years.
But Sabrina's faith never wavered.
She always, always had her Bible.
The family life for the Lamones was brilliant.
It was loving.
Sabrina devoted her life to her children.
That was her number one priority,
and she was by choice a stay-at-home mom.
Robert was really hardworking, reliable.
They were also a family that liked to have fun.
They had a lot of friends.
When we lived in Silver Lakes, I was a stay at home mom.
We had two children and I was married to a fireman.
Nicolette asked us not to use her last name.
I met Rob and Sabrina on our son's tee ball team.
Sabrina and Robert Lamone were really kind of an it couple.
And all the photos you see of them, all the stories you hear about them,
they seem so bubbly, so vivacious.
Rob and Sabrina would have people come to their house,
you know, to have gatherings or they would be drinking.
Rob and Sabrina, they seemed very happy.
They were always calling each other sweet little names,
always kissing each other, laughing a lot.
A lot of people wanted their husbands to be like Rob just because
he was very in tune with Sabrina.
Like, he gave her everything.
They weren't just a tight family.
They also had a core group of friends, other couples.
They called themselves the Wolf Pack.
And there was a lot of boating and partying.
There was a group of friends that hung out with them and they would go a lot of places
together.
I wasn't friends with anybody that was a part of it.
It was after me.
Among this wolf pack is a couple, Jason and Kelly
Bernatine.
They were particularly close to Sabrina and Robert.
Jason was a firefighter, and Kelly was a hairstylist.
In fact, that's how she met Sabrina.
Kelly, Bernatine is the one that started the Wolf Pack.
You know, Sabrina would tell me when she first met Kelly,
Kelly was just the greatest thing ever.
So between 2000 and 2008, it's a pretty steady marriage.
Great family life, great social life,
everything going well. But in 2008,
something starts happening in this relationship. Sabrina would invite everyone over to their
house. Sometimes you couldn't even fit into the house. We all lived within a mile of each
other or less, so Robin and Samira would come to our house, we'd go to their house,
but it was pretty much like eating and drinking.
Sabrina was drinking so much all the time
that she was pretty numb, I think, to a lot of things,
but she didn't share with me what was going on.
I always stuck in my head of,
it's five o'clock somewhere, is always what she said,
because she just always wanted to drink.
Sabrina did not ask for help.
I would talk to her about it,
and she'd be like,
oh Julie, I'm fine.
It was the same thing with me.
If we didn't admit it, it wasn't real.
And that may be one of the first indications
that things aren't as happy and nice as they appear.
It was during this time of heavy partying that the couple decided to shake up their
marriage and this beautiful family portrait would be shattered for good. The Tatch Pea Loop was engineered to assist trains in not going too fast as they're coming
down the mountains from Mojave into Tatch Pea.
Robert was known as a rapid responder.
He would fill in for other people who needed some time off at the last second. Robert would have to go to wherever the
problem was on the train. So if the train broke down then he would go out and he
would fix it.
When they're stopped it's not uncommon for someone to break into the trains and steal
the contents of its cargo.
Robert came across the bear one time.
It was a very dangerous job.
For one person to work that job is just unreal to me.
By all accounts, Rob loved the railroad.
He not only worked into Hatchapie on a part-time basis,
but he also worked in the rail yard in Barstow.
That fascination with the railroad came from his dad.
My dad started with the railroad,
working with a group in the railroad called the Tie Gang.
Just a day in, day out, all they did
was change railroad tracks.
Because of that job, Rob's father had to move a lot.
That's how the family wound up in small rural towns
throughout Arizona.
Shortly after my parents' divorce in 86,
they moved to Mojave, Arizona,
where my brother finished off his last couple of years
of high school.
Really loved playing football. He played a defensive end or a defensive tackle.
Well, Robert Lamone was one of my special kids.
I personally coached him in football.
I paid more attention to him because I
could tell that he needed somebody to guide him along.
He needed that person that would pat him on the back.
Rob stood out to a lot of people because to make ends meet,
Rob would bring homemade burritos that his family would make, which were delicious,
and he would sell them at school. And the money he raised
helped support his family.
My dad, when he was home on weekends, him and Robert would go out and my dad would sell burritos
to people along the railroad.
I think that's where Robert got a lot of his social behavior
from is just hanging out with dad
and going out and meeting people.
By 2000, Rob is happily married to Sabrina
living in Silver Lakes and working that dream job
with BNSF Railroad.
Their life seemed to be pretty good.
But the reality was much darker with what was going on behind closed doors.
In 2008, Rob and Sabrina decided mutually that they wanted to have a little bit more excitement
in their relationship. I saw a difference in Robert and Sabrina's marriage.
Not so much their marriage, but their way of living
and their lifestyle.
They started to have relations with other couples.
Sabrina and I were out one night.
I dropped her off at her house in her driveway
and she propositioned me for her and Rob.
And I told her, no, I'm married.
I was kind of shocked.
And then she was like, OK, well, let me talk to Rob.
And I'm like, what?
So it just caught me off guard.
And I'm thinking, this is what they do.
And then eventually, I don't even know,
a couple of weeks later later something ended up where
it happened.
My husband and I at the time had agreements that like if we were going to kiss, you know,
we knew that we would talk about it.
It only happened a couple times and that was it.
A lot of the community already knew that like Robinson-Bainer had an open marriage in a
roundabout way.
Another couple also involved with Rob and Sabrina at the time were friends from the Wolf Pack, Jason and Kelly Bernatine.
They went on adult vacations, they went out boating, they partied a lot at the North Lake.
It was usually Sabrina and I,
and then we would go have sex with our husbands.
Sabrina, she was tired of being in an open marriage.
I remember her saying Rob would kind of insinuate her
to change certain things about her.
He did tell her something that he must have liked about me
to change on her, and she had brought it to my attention
And I just thought that was wrong. I just told him I wouldn't want my husband telling me something about another woman
We opened our marriage bed and it changed the dynamics of
Our sacred bond as soon as we made that choice together.
Some say it was Sabrina's idea. Others say Rob was into it. Unless we were flies on the wall in the
bedroom, we won't know for sure. The only thing she complained about is that she wanted to go back
to church and she wanted Robert to go back to church. Robert, he felt like they would be hypocrites if they went back to church.
Robert didn't want to change back. He wanted to continue with the fun and all that they were doing.
Despite the open marriage, Robert and Sabrina still loved each other.
On August 17, 2014, Rob is filling in for a co-worker.
And that morning, like he's done so many other times, he drives the 85 miles to Tehachapi.
When Rob isn't on call fixing broken down trains, he is typically in the BNSF office,
which is a nondescript industrial warehouse on the outskirts of town.
It's on Goodrich Drive, which is a one-way in and one-way out street.
So if you're going to go there, that's going to either be you have a destination or you're
lost. Robert was due to get off at
seven in the evening and return home to his wife and kids. I talked to Sabrina
a few times later on that evening and then she's like I keep trying to get a
hold of Rob. I can't get a hold of him. Her daughter was waiting up for him
because it was going to be her first day of school and she wanted to give her daddy a kiss good night.
And I said, oh, Brianna, he'll call you.
Maybe he's out on a train or something.
Around 7 PM, Rob's replacement shows up
to take over the shift.
Immediately he sees things don't seem right.
Immediately he sees things don't seem right.
Their daughter wanted to talk to him on the phone, desperately. And they just kept calling and calling and calling.
And there was no answer.
Julie called me. I asked her what happened, where's my brother, and I could hear the phone drop.
On August 17th, 2014, it's a Sunday. Robert Lamone is working at the rail yard into Hatchapie. He's covering a shift for someone else.
It's about 7 p.m. when his co-worker walks into the office and finds Robert Lamone bleeding on the ground.
He calls 911.
There's a call that comes in.
There is.
A man has been shot.
What happens on that type of a call is the homicide unit gets a call.
The guys come up here from the unit, as well as our technical investigators.
Railroad tracks here.
Yes.
So this is the train?
Yes, this is the train that comes through to Hatchapie.
And we're pulling onto a Goodrick Drive now,
which is the one way in and one way out.
And as we're coming to the industrial complex.
This is way back off the beaten path.
It is.
It absolutely is. That's why I believe that someone who was purposely had to come here or they
were lost. The body is found inside this warehouse used by the BNSF Railway. What
did the detectives find once they get here? As they arrive here this roll-up
door, this large roll-up door door is open. Inside there is a large
work truck. Next to the truck, near the driver's door, there is Robert Lamone and he's sort of
propped up against the truck. In what kind of condition was Robert Lamone in? He had been shot
once, twice? Twice, yes. He'd been shot in the upper torso area and in the head.
When I arrived during the walkthrough,
I observed he was laying next to a refrigerator.
This photograph here is significant.
We found that there was blood spatter
on the side of the refrigerator door.
There was blood starting to pool underneath his body.
We did find an expended bullet that was on the ground
just above Rob's head.
And they also found the office inside had been sort of ransacked and they found drawers
pulled from a desk.
They found binders and shop manuals and things on the floor.
Are you thinking robbery?
A robbery gone bad?
Initially, yes, it did look that way.
What leads you to think that that's not the case?
So as we begin looking at the crime scene itself and you're finding shot manuals pulled
out onto the ground, it's very odd that you can't steal those and trade them.
And generally people who commit crimes of murder and things like that are looking for
fast money.
And we sort of determined that, you know, this looked as though maybe it had been staged.
So your hunch was that this wasn't a legitimate robbery, that somebody tried to make it look like it was a robbery? Yes.
When detectives contacted Sabrina Lamone and informed her that her husband had
been in fact murdered, her actions and her demeanor was appropriate. I mean, she was crying. I got a phone call, and it was Sabrina.
And she was just screaming and asking me to go over to her house.
And I know that I kept saying, are you sure it was Robert?
Because Robert was so strong, we couldn't believe it.
We just couldn't believe it. We just couldn't believe it.
I got the call August the 17th.
Julie called me and told me that there had been
a terrible accident at the railroad
and my brother was no longer with us.
And I asked her, what happened?
Where's my brother?
What happened, brother?
And I could hear the phone drop.
And then I'm yelling on the phone,
what's wrong with my brother?
And then Randy got on the phone
and told us that my brother had been shot.
I was called the very next morning
by a friend of mine that lived in Silver Lakes telling
me that Rob had been killed and I felt so bad for the kids.
With detectives sorting out the crime scene and processing evidence, Rob's family is coming
together to make funeral arrangements.
When my brother passed away, we were at Sabrina's house and Julie took me into the back bedroom
and Sabrina didn't want to talk about the services, arrangements and the funeral and all that.
She just wasn't dealing with it.
There were people everywhere. I mean, it was overwhelming.
Sabrina stayed in her room most of the time. She just had a hard time.
It was unbelievable.
So a few days following Robert Limon's death,
there was a memorial held at a local Hellendale church
where hundreds of people gathered.
He was somebody who was beloved by many in that community.
So they gathered to pay their respects.
What were you learning about this guy, Robert Limon,
as you began to ask people about him?
We began interviewing his family and friends
and they said that he was a great guy.
Everyone that we spoke with said that he was just
a fantastic person and he was sort of the husband
that every woman would want.
I think we got nothing but praise about him
from family and friends.
I was shocked that Rob got killed.
I mean, that was the last person you would think that would ever get killed.
Rob was just such a good person.
I mean, he was a great dad.
Detectives didn't really know who might have committed this murder.
Robert didn't have any enemies.
Nobody seemed to have any animosity toward him.
No eyewitnesses, no apparent evidence here at the scene.
So you just have to just start looking.
The following day, during daylight hours,
we came out and began canvassing the area.
And upon doing so,
we found this video surveillance camera right here.
And this is the camera that actually captures
the only footage we had for that entire day of anyone within this complex. This is
the camera that captured the person walking through the complex with an
exaggerated limp walking towards the BNSF location where Rob was found dead.
You were just hoping that this would show you something. We thought this would
be great. There's the potential this is going to actually have footage of the person who committed this crime.
Robert was a rapid responder for the railway and was returning to the shop after work when he was attacked.
Rob Lamone is dead after being shot twice.
Now detectives are asking the same question that's being asked from Tehachapi all the way to Silver Lakes.
Why?
No one had any reason to suspect or know of anyone that wanted Robert Lamone killed or dead.
He was well liked by everyone and no one could imagine any reason why someone would want to kill Robert.
When police found Robert Lamone on the ground,
suffering from the gunshots,
they started to look around the office.
They found the place really ransacked and disheveled,
but what was really interesting as they thought about,
could this have been a robbery,
was there was no money really being held at the rail yard.
Each and every single one of us had the overwhelming opinion
that the office within this BNSF railroad complex
appears that the crime scene had been staged.
So the Kern County Sheriff's Department and the investigators were spending a lot of time with Sabrina Lamone
trying to gather information about who might have had a motive to harm Robert Lamone.
When they asked her about her marriage with Rob, she said everything was great.
She said there was no extramarital relationships that she was involved in
or she was aware that Rob was involved in.
And so at that point in time, she wasn't able to provide us any information
with respect to who may have killed Rob.
The expended bullet that investigators find at the crime scene is fragmented
and is of no evidentiary value.
And there are no shell casings at the scene either.
But during the autopsy, investigators catch a break.
We discovered that the gun used in this case was a larger caliber, probably a.44 magnum
or a.45 or possibly larger.
So we were looking for, at all likelihood, a handgun of larger caliber.
Investigators now know what kind of weapon
they're looking for,
and they soon get a promising lead from a local gunsmith.
We received a tip that someone went into a local gun store
in Tatchby and requested that their firing pin be replaced.
Detectives were hopeful that this was possibly a great lead, and requested that their firing pin be replaced.
Detectives were hopeful that this was possibly a great lead
and this could possibly be the gun
that was actually used in Rob's murder.
But any hope for a quick resolution is short-lived.
We seized the gun in question, had it examined
and had it compared to the bullet that was found at the scene,
and we found that the two did not match. This is soon a tireless investigation
with detectives searching the crime scene,
looking at surveillance cameras,
hoping they might have captured a possible suspect.
The first camera they check is actually in the garage
where the murder happened.
So this is a photograph of the truck that Rob was driving that evening during his shift.
We were hopeful initially that we might be able to get some video surveillance from,
being that many of the trucks are equipped with cameras, but unfortunately the cameras
aren't running 24-7 and they're only recording when they're actually being operated.
We began canvassing the area and upon doing so we found this video surveillance camera right here.
And once you began to look at the surveillance video from this camera
what did you see exactly?
We saw a subject you couldn't really tell his age the quality of the video is not the best
and you can see him walking the video is not the best.
And you could see him walking with a lamp through the complex
and then towards, once again, where...
Down this way.
Correct, where the BNSF Rail business is located.
Was it clear enough that you could make out whether it was a man or a woman or older?
You could tell that it was a man. I think that's fair to say it was a man.
But anything other than that, age, ethnicity, no.
And when you saw that person walking over here,
did you think that could be your suspect?
It's a very high potential that it could have been.
You see a guy on security footage,
you're going to get excited.
Who else could it be?
It seems so promising.
Did people recognize the person?
Were you able to get a good look at this person?
The only video we released was the person in the industrial complex. Some of the tips
we got led us to a local transient that people believe could have been potentially involved
and we were able to locate that person and ultimately eliminate them as the suspect.
We were back to square one without a whole lot of leads to follow up on.
Sabrina and her family and the detectives aren't the only people desperate for answers.
The people at BNSF Railroad also want to help.
BNSF Railway is now offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and a
murder of one of its employees.
Detectives get some leads from the reward offer,
but it's the discovery of more surveillance video
from a nearby company that helps open up the investigation.
Video surveillance footage did in fact show Rob Lamone
driving on Goodrick Drive.
So you began looking deeper.
On the day in question, there was multiple vehicles
that were on Goodrick Drive, where
Rob Lamoen was located.
We were able to identify each every person driving
those vehicles on that day, with the exception of a lone motorist
on a motorcycle.
The video surveillance captured a subject
riding his motorcycle eastbound on Goodrick Drive.
And then a short time later, he was leaving Goodrick westbound.
Adding to that suspicion,
the motorcycle is spotted around the same time
investigators think Robert Lamone was murdered.
But the driver of that motorcycle is a mystery.
So the investigation was slow,
but on September 1st, 2014,
investigators received a call
that changed the entire course of the investigation.
Robert Lamone's friend contacted us and told us that he received a very odd message left
on his cellular phone from a subject whom he identified as Jonathan Hearn.
He thought what was very odd about the voice messages is that Jonathan seemed very apologetic
for Rob's death.
But who exactly is Jonathan Hearn?
This is the first time during the investigation that we heard the name Jonathan Hearn.
Once detectives speak with Mr. Hearn, they are suddenly led down a whole new investigative
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About three weeks after Robert was murdered,
police got a game-changing phone call
from Robert's good friend, Jason Bernatine.
It really changes the face of everything.
Detectives really didn't have any strong leads
in this investigation until Jason Bernatine had come forward.
He had a very strange voicemail left on his phone.
Jason told us that Sabrina was possibly involved
with a Redlands fireman by the name of Jonathan Hearn.
Jason Pernateen knew Jonathan Hearn
due to they were both firefighters
and that they used to work with one another,
especially when Jonathan was a paramedic
on an ambulance crew, so they ran calls together. Jonathan Hearn grew up a little bit sheltered, it seemed.
He was a good looking guy, really fit.
And I think he was incredibly ambitious, too,
especially for his age.
Jonathan Hearn.
Jonathan graduated from his paramedic program with honors,
even got an award for outstanding
performance.
Jonathan Hearn really did have a natural instinct to draw people in.
He's a first responder.
He took care of elderly ladies and he would make them feel okay and everything's fine.
Had you heard of Jonathan Hearn before?
No, we had not. So what did Had you heard of Jonathan Hearn before? No, we had not.
So what did he tell you about Jonathan Hearn?
He knew that Jonathan Hearn actually had possibly a dating or romantic relationship with Sabrina
Lamone outside of Robert Lamone.
It was odd and suspicious in the fact that Jonathan called Jason and apologized to him
for having this relationship with Sabrina
outside of Rob's knowledge.
Then shortly after the voicemail, Jason Bernatine has something new to turn over to cops, and
that's the strangest of letters from Jonathan Heard.
In that letter to Jason, Jonathan repeatedly asks for forgiveness from the Bernatines,
but he never explains why he's asking for it.
The first and biggest regret left undone was my sin against you.
With no further ado, please let me ask for your forgiveness.
I'm sorry for being prideful, for being selfish, and for being disrespectful. For you as an investigator, you're thinking,
why would you write this letter after the fact?
Rob's dead, and this is just odd.
This is just very odd behavior from this person.
MUSIC
Jonathan Hearn was originally not on our radar whatsoever.
When Jason came to us and told us about Sabrina
and Jonathan's possible relationship,
we immediately started looking into Jonathan
to find out if we could make any sort of connection
or a link to Rob.
Detectives are blasting through this new lead
with Jonathan Hearn, and they learn all kinds of things.
Now, what about Rob Limon? Are you learning anything about him and his relationships outside of his marriage?
So it was told to us that there was the potential that him and his wife had an open relationship,
meaning that non-traditional marriage with other people within their small group of friends.
So if you know that Rob Lemone is possibly having relationships outside of his marriage,
and now you learn that his wife is too, where does that take you in this investigation?
So it circled us all the way back around to Jonathan Hearn.
But how did Jonathan Hearn even know Sabrina Lemone?
She was 10 years older, and they didn't run in the same circles.
In 2012, Sabrina went to work with a part-time job at Costco.
She was a sample lady,
and it was a good match for her personality.
That's eventually where she met Jonathan.
When Jonathan met Sabrina at Costco,
she realized, oh, you're a fireman.
I have fireman friends as well.
They start talking, it's flirtatious.
They exchange phone numbers.
They have a couple of get-togethers.
But it starts to develop an emotional component.
He was like nobody I'd ever met before.
The attention he showed me was very different
than what I was getting at that time in my life.
I don't know why I pursued a relationship with him.
We learned that there was possible infatuation that Jonathan had with Sabrina.
Jason Bernatine's wife, Kelly, actually called us and told us that Jonathan Hearn was spending
quite a bit of time with Sabrina Lamone at her home.
And Kelly found this very odd.
Jonathan's showing up a lot in Sabrina's home.
He's bringing flowers, but bringing his sister with him.
He started hanging around a lot more.
He would even cook for the kids.
But what's really bizarre is that
Jonathan is trying so desperately
to get himself inside this group, this wolf pack.
He is really trying so hard to get in there and be a part of this group so he
can be near Sabrina. Why is he doing this? Why not just keep the affair going
secretly? One day Rob Lamone discovers some pretty intimate text between the
couple on Sabrina's phone.
She says he angrily breaks her phone and insists that she stop seeing Jonathan.
Robert was upset and he wanted to know who this guy was and what was so special about
him.
And I told him that I didn't know and I'm sorry.
She promises to break things off, but Sabrina and Jonathan keep seeing each other.
Detectives now have reason to take another look at that surveillance video gathered near the crime scene
to see if they can link it to Jonathan Hearn.
And we began to do some follow-up investigation into this Jonathan Hearn
and found that he had a motorcycle registered to him. Jonathan Hearn has a Yamaha motorcycle that seems a lot like the one you see in the footage.
So from various convenience stores we began pulling video surveillance footage.
And we did find one at the pilot station at a place commonly referred to as Four Corners.
The lone motorcyclist comes into the gas station on the place commonly referred to as Four Corners.
The lone motorcyclist comes into the gas station on the day of the actual homicide.
The motorcyclist seen inside the convenience store at the station is wearing a red bandana, but detectives can't confirm whether it's Jonathan Hearn.
So they decide it's time to kick their investigation into high gear.
We immediately started thinking this could be a great case for a wiretap.
What we were hoping to glean from this wiretap was conversations between Sabrina and Jonathan
Hearn.
Whatever happens, no matter how it goes, I just love you.
I love you.
I love you to the end of love you. I love you, I love you.
To the end, to the end of the world, I love you.
So, I love you, Doc.
In the days, weeks, months following the murder,
Jonathan and Sabrina talked a lot on the phone.
And through these wiretap recordings,
we catch this glimpse into what they're discussing.
And they talk a lot about God.
They talk a lot about faith.
I wanna be used for His glory.
Whatever He wants me to do.
I mean, I would cut my arm off.
I would shave my head.
I would, if that's what God would want for me, you know?
Like, I feel that, you know? I feel that.
I do too. I do too.
It was quite odd and in these conversations Jonathan actually at one point in time talked
about a passage in the Bible talking about David and Bathsheba.
I've been reading Psalms 51.
The Psalms are so good.
David is a lot like you and I, Sabrina.
He was someone who committed adultery.
Actually, that's what Psalms 51 is about.
He had an affair and then he even went on to kill the guy,
like send him into battle,
and pretty much had him killed off.
It's a really twisted take on religion.
Is this just a spiritual discussion,
or is it a roadmap to foul play?
My God, we're on our knees for a reason.
We have been dirtbags, we've been sinners.
We've been selfish, we've sinned.
Someone killed my friend. They needed to pay for it.
So you don't hear about big crime activity here?
No.
So to get a call that there is a shooting at the rail yard here.
Pretty uncommon.
Oh, very.
Robert Lamone was brutally gunned down at his place of work.
Interest was insane.
I'm more than confused here, Sabrina.
I'm really telling you,
I think you're flat in the middle of this murder.
Police are closing in on not just one, but two suspects.
I love you. I love you. I two suspects. I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
To the end of the world, I love you.
A man of God, a married woman, a dead husband, and a wiretap.
Something's not adding up here.
I wouldn't be surprised if they're listening to us right now.
It forced them to have to talk about the open marriage
and who's with who.
It was like a car accident you couldn't look away from.
I was so ready and so on fire to tell the truth
that she didn't have anything to do with her husband's murder.
On August 17th, 2014, Robert Lamone is working at the rail yard in Tahachapi. It's about 7 p.m. when his co-worker walks into the office and finds Robert Lamone bleeding
on the ground.
Police arrive on the scene, take one look and realize it's Robert Lamone who's dead.
He's been shot and police don't know at this point what they're dealing with.
Police uncover surveillance video that shows a man walking with a limp outside Rob's workplace.
Investigators initially think it might be a local transient, but he's cleared.
The killer's identity is still a mystery,
and Rob's wife Sabrina says she can't think of anybody
who'd want to hurt him.
He got along with everyone, and everyone seemed to love him.
So at this point in the investigation,
there was really no additional leads.
We had nothing coming in that we could follow up on.
But two weeks after Rob's murder,
there's a development that changes everything.
Robert Lamone's friend contacted us and told us that he received a very odd message left
on his cellular phone from a subject whom he identified as Jonathan Hearn.
So this friend of Robert Lamone, Jason Pernitine, knew Jonathan Hearn due to their both firefighters. And this was the very first time we had heard the name Jonathan Hearn due to they were both firefighters.
And this was the very first time
we had heard the name Jonathan Hearn.
Jonathan basically confided that he was having
some sort of a relationship with Sabrina.
We immediately started looking into Jonathan
to find out if we could make any sort of connection
or a link to Rob.
Everything in this investigation was pointing toward Jonathan Hearn, but nobody really knew
at this point who he was.
Jonathan Hearn was in his early 20s.
He was a firefighter.
He was extremely intelligent. He had been previously a paramedic,
and he had interests in becoming a arson investigator.
Jonathan Hearn was from Hisperia, California,
and he grew up in a religious family, was homeschooled.
Jonathan and I would say
that we were each other's first crushes.
That was always kind of our little thing, and he always made me feel super special.
He was one of those guys that would dode on you.
He would open the door.
He always had his Bible with him.
Sarah says from the time he was a child, everything in Jonathan's life centered around the church
that he attended with his family.
There wasn't a day where we were not on the church grounds for some type of function.
We lived eight breathed church.
He was charismatic, charming, and he loved the Lord
and that mattered to me.
I would have seen him leading his own church eventually.
But Hearn's life takes a different path.
By December of 2012, he's working as a firefighter,
and he meets this woman named Sabrina Lamone at a local Costco.
Jonathan came in wearing his fireman's outfit.
They kind of flirted. They had lunch and some coffees.
But then it turned into a full-on sexual relationship
and then ultimately a plan to be together someday
Detectives want to know more about Jonathan and Sabrina's relationship in the wake of Rob's murder
So they decide to tap their phones
Whatever happens, we're all however it goes. I just
Love you. I love you. I love you
To the end to the end of the world. I love you. I love you to the end.
To the end of the world, I love you.
So, um, I love you back.
What kinds of things were you hearing in these calls?
There was a lot of praying back and forth,
as Jonathan is a very religious person,
and it seemed as though Sabrina was sort of becoming that same way.
is a very religious person, and it seemed as though Sabrina was sort of becoming that same way.
While the conversations are revealing, they're not exactly incriminating.
So, detectives decide to up the ante. During a wiretap investigation, you need to get your targets or your suspects
talking about the crime that you're investigating.
The way you do that is by tickling the wire, so to speak.
One way is to place a phone call to one of your possible suspects,
give them some disinformation that might get them talking to one of the other suspects about
what you just told them. Investigators feed Sabrina some false information that they've
got a lead on the person caught on surveillance video riding a motorcycle outside the crime scene.
She immediately calls Jonathan.
Hey.
Hey.
Um, I'm not sure what's going on,
but Detective Meyer called me.
He got a speech or witness tip
that a tall white male was leaving on a motorcycle around the time of Robert's murder.
And someone called in and said that it's someone that knows Rob by the name of John.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were listening to us right now.
This is just so crazy. I can't believe any of this. Like, I can't believe any of it.
One of our detectives called Sabrina and told her that during the investigation that we have found DNA evidence at the scene.
Sabrina, how's it going?
Oh, what's up?
I've got some exciting news.
Okay, tell me.
The crime lab just sent me an email and said they got a good DNA sample from what they
believe was a sweat drop that was on the floor.
And they'll be able to get a good DNA profile from that sweat drop.
It looks good.
It's the best news we've gotten so far.
Really?
Oh my gosh.
That's great.
As soon as she hung up the phone
with one of our detectives,
immediately she called Jonathan on her burner phone.
He just said, I'm sorry,
I don't have a lot of information for you.
Maybe I'll have more for you Wednesday.
I was gonna talk to you and see if you wanna maybe
kinda feel him out a little bit.
She should have been elated and said, you know, they've got this DNA.
This is going to be fantastic.
That was a big moment.
To me, it was, yes.
What was odd about that is the fact that, you know,
Jonathan didn't say, oh, Sabrina, that's terrific.
They're going to find out who killed your husband,
that this is fantastic news.
Police have heard enough, and they are now
ready to move in on the couple.
But do they really have enough to hold them accountable
for the murder of Rob Lamone?
I think he's such a husband.
I've had him killed by Jonathan so you two could be together.
Three months since Robert Lamone was murdered, police have closed in on two suspects, his
wife Sabrina and her young lover, Jonathan Hearn.
On November 18th, 2014, the decision was made to execute search warrants at multiple locations
and make the arrests of Jonathan Hearn and Sabrina Lamone for Rob's death.
It was a shocking announcement from the Kern County Sheriff's Department this morning.
A wife and her lover behind bars for her husband's murder.
The arrests and their relationship makes huge news in the Silver Lakes area.
A photo of Sabrina and Jonathan together appearing close is published in a local newspaper.
I was at work and I got a call from a detective that Sabrina and Hearn had been arrested and
that I needed to pick up the kids from school.
And I, well, of course I freaked out.
I went to Jonathan Hearn's home
where detectives were conducting
a search warrant investigation.
I also helped in the search of that
whereas we found a motorcycle,
a helmet, a red bandana, a backpack,
as well as we found a grocery bag full of receipts.
You have the right to remain silent, you understand?
Yes.
Now a widow at 34, Sabrina Lamone is suddenly facing some very tough questions.
After Sabrina's arrest, she was taken and she was interviewed by detectives and during
that interview she adamantly denied any involvement in the death of his life.
And I've got some serious doubts about you.
Okay?
Okay.
Understood.
For more than four hours, detectives pepper Sabrina with questions.
If you don't have anything for us, I think we need to get you to jail.
Okay. What I need you to do is I need you to stand up and turn around.
Obviously since you were already brought down here once before, you were told what you're
under arrest for, correct?
Yes.
For conspiracy to commit murder and a sensory to murder? Okay.
It turns out that arresting Sabrina for Rob's murder is one thing,
but having the evidence to prove it is another.
She was just steadfast, I have no involvement in this,
and she didn't really give us much.
With all the evidence collected against Jonathan Hearn, who is still in jail, the DA's office believes it has a good case.
But with no direct evidence linking Sabrina, she's not charged.
So you're holding the two of them, but within a couple of days, Sabrina is let go?
She is.
There wasn't enough to hold her?
At that point in time, correct. After being released, Sabrina returns to Silver Lakes,
but with whispers about her affair
and possible involvement in her husband's murder,
not everybody's happy to have her back.
They would harass her.
The kids couldn't go to school.
She had to home school them.
So my cousins, they said, you know what?
Come and live down here with us and we'll take care of you.
Sabrina moves 140 miles away from Silver Lakes to Camarillo, California.
When Sabrina decided to move out, we looked at maybe six or eight places.
There was one in this
community that was off the streets and it was a big complex and it was right
next to the soccer field and then she looked at it and said we'll take it.
So this is a picture of me and Sabrina at the beach at her son's birthday. We
became instant friends. Our boys are a week apart and we found out that we were
married on the same day in the
same year.
Her husband passed away, and so did mine.
She was involved in a church.
She's an amazing mom.
She adored her kids, and that was her focus then, to be the best mom she could be.
With a new life and now new friends, Karen says Sabrina eventually opens up about her past.
It was one weekend we went,
we took my daughter to a soccer tournament.
And we got a room for our kids and a room for us.
And that's when she shared her life with me,
told me what happened and about her husband being murdered.
And that's when I kind of learned the story.
But for two years, with Sabrina now settling
into a new life after Silver Lakes,
detectives are quietly building their case against her.
Detectives in this case believe that Sabrina and Jonathan
did conspire to kill Rob.
We just had a little bit more work to do in order to allow the district attorney's office Detectives in this case believe that Sabrina and Jonathan did conspire to kill Rob.
We just had a little bit more work to do in order to allow the district attorney's office
to provide us with a warrant to re-arrest Sabrina.
While Sabrina is starting over, Jonathan is sitting in a jail cell on murder charges.
With his trial date approaching, he now faces a monumental decision.
And so when we had a conversation with him,
I think that there were a variety of factors.
One of them was that we had trial coming up
and that if we were going to make a deal,
now was the time to do it, and it was going to cost something.
Phone ringing.
We received a phone call from the district attorney's office
and said they were contacted by Clayton Campbell,
indicating that Jonathan Hearn did in fact wish to testify and provide information.
Initially, as charged, he was facing life without the possibility of parole.
And so they made this deal, but it was a substantial sentence.
It was still 25 years.
Jonathan was going to have to tell the prosecutor about Sabrina's involvement and he was going
to have to tell them everything. And it was a circumstantial case.
Nobody saw this.
There were no eyewitnesses, no DNA, just Jonathan's word against Sabrina's.
Correct.
There was a knock at the door and it was the district attorney and the detectives.
was the district attorney and the detectives.
And Sabrina didn't have any shoes on
and they asked her to come outside.
And she went outside and I started freaking out.
The way she was acting towards us was, I can't believe this. You know, basically how dare you?
How dare you come and arrest me?
I'm not involved in this. I didn't do anything.
The widow of a man found dead in Tehachapi two years ago has been arrested in his death.
With Jonathan Hearn's cooperation, Sabrina Lamone is now squarely in the prosecutor's crosshairs.
She couldn't sit back and play the innocent card anymore.
Emotions were high in the courtroom this afternoon
as Jonathan Hearn took to the stand
for the first time in Sabrina Lamone's trial.
It's been three years since Robert Lamone
was brutally gunned down at his place of work.
Now, his own wife, she goes up against one major witness,
the man she once loved, the man she swore she wanted a future with. and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at Fizz.ca.
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A trial sparking national attention getting underway this morning. Sabrina Limon facing murder and conspiracy charges.
It's September 11th, 2017. At Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield, California,
Sabrina Lamone is about to stand trial. She's pleaded not guilty to all charges.
We'll continue to keep you up to date on our website turnit23.com as well as our mobile and
tablet app. The general interest was insane. This wasn't just Bakersfield, Kern County, where I worked.
This was a national attention story.
Deputy District Attorney Eric Smith tells the jury
that the motive for this murder was love and money.
Both Sabrina and Jonathan, they had a plan.
And that plan was to get rid of Robert Lamone.
Why?
So they could be together.
Why?
So she could get in excess of $300,000 in life insurance money.
The prosecution's case hinges on its star witness,
Jonathan Hearn, the man who's about to turn on the woman he once
loved and adored, Sabrina Lamone.
You met the true someone we got?
I do.
Hearn laid out for the jury how he met Sabrina, how their relationship started, and then how
it evolved and blossomed into the level where they were having those deep conversations
about having a future together. When I met her, there was a sort of emotional magnetism there.
I just found her to be a very entrancing person.
Jonathan testifies that he suggested Sabrina divorce Rob,
but says she rejected the idea.
She expressed that he would honestly rather be dead than divorced.
Losing her would essentially kill him.
What Jonathan said was pretty ironic
because that turned into the next part of the conversation
for Jonathan and Sabrina.
What did Sabrina tell you she wanted you to do?
With respect to Rob to kill him.
Jonathan testifies about what he says is the couple's first attempt to kill Rob.
A bizarre plot to poison him with arsenic mixed into one of his favorite desserts.
Banana pudding with Nilla wafers.
I stirred in the arsenic into the pudding.
Jonathan says she places the container in his lunch bag and sends him off to work,
but then she panics and she chickens out.
She called Robert and then she told him to not eat the pudding
because I think she said that she told him the bananas had gone bad in it.
But Jonathan testifies that the couple doesn't give up
saying they next come up with a scheme to kill Robert
at the Tehachapi warehouse. When you're
planning or lead up to the second attempt what information did Sabrina
provide you?
She offered to find me pictures of the facility.
She described the office layout and the interior
to give me a kind of an idea of what to expect.
It was really chilling to hear how precise
the descriptions of the preparation
that he undertook for that day were.
I assembled some of the clothing that I would be wearing, a mask, two backpacks,
extra ammunition, also some of the clothing, disguised clothing that I'd be wearing. Jonathan actually crafted his own silencer
and he made it out of a large flashlight
that he somehow attached to his weapon.
On August 17, 2014, Jonathan makes that fateful trip
to the Tehachapi warehouse.
He says that's him in the surveillance video,
deliberately faking a limp to help disguise his identity.
Once inside the garage, he says he spots Rob.
At that time, Robert approached.
We briefly spoke.
He went to retrieve some things, and I went to pull out a firearm.
However, the silencer was kind of stuck in the corner of the backpack that I had.
So I fired the first shot from within the bag.
Jonathan begins ransacking the office in this attempt to make it look like a robbery gone bad.
He rifles through some drawers, he throws some papers around, he steals the laptop that's
on the desk, he turns around to leave, and guess what?
He thought he had heard some sort of gurgling sounds
from Robert Lamone.
I really didn't want to leave him if he wasn't entirely dead.
So I went back around the backside of the truck and fired one more shot at him.
And then closed the garage door behind me.
Were you feeling happiness, salation, excitement?
Immediately leaving probably fear, regret, and I'm sorry this sounds bad, but of relief
I regret, and I'm sorry this sounds bad, but of relief that what had been in the works for so long was finally done.
Jonathan says he then gets on his motorcycle and drives home, stopping at a gas station
along the way. That's him captured on that surveillance video.
When you got home, what did you do?
I saw that I had a lot of missed calls from Sabrina, so I called her.
She wanted to make sure I was okay, and I did express that I had done it and that everything was about to change.
I think Jonathan Hearn's testimony
was particularly striking,
mostly because of his demeanor.
He talked about the murder that he carried out
just so matter-of-factly.
It was really strange.
But remember, this is a case of, just so matter-of-factly, it was really strange.
But remember, this is a case of, he said, she lied. Now it's the defense's turn.
And their star witness is none other than Sabrina Lamone.
Do you and Jonathan ever talk about him killing Roman?
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Sabrina Lamone's defense attorney Richard Terry in his opening statements really was
trying to show Jonathan Hearn as a calculated killer who Sabrina Lamone was a victim to.
She was vulnerable and he played on that.
He used that, manipulated her, and he killed her husband.
The most important thing I was trying to bring across to the jury was that Jonathan had been living a lie his entire life
by his religious ideation when he actually didn't believe it.
As they would play the wiretapped conversations in court, really the thing that stood out
was how often Jonathan Hearn would bring up God, faith.
Pre-destruction of God.
We know that you have saved through dirty robbers and killers,
greatness, torturers, a confluent saint, and you are taking us to your heaven.
Considering all the conversation about God and faith, it was very interesting to hear what he said when being cross-examined by Richard Terry.
Or you really weren't a true Christian if you weren't that devout.
Is that right?
Yes, sir.
In other words, you mouthed the words.
Is that right?
That would be a good characterization.
In other words, you really didn't believe it?
I can say probably from the age of 18 and onward,
it was pretty artificial.
All this, you know, pious front you put on is nothing but fabrication.
So how can you believe anything coming from this man's mouth?
And one thing Terry says Jonathan is lying about is that plan to kill Rob Lamone with poisoned banana pudding.
Remember, Jonathan testified that Sabrina suddenly panicked the day he said Rob took that deadly dessert to work.
So she called Rob when he was at work to tell him not to eat it. Is that right?
That's what she told me, yes.
Were you ever aware that Sabrina never called her husband those two days he was working in Tehachapi in April?
I was not aware of that.
Terry also accuses Jonathan of lying when he testified that Sabrina had given him Rob's work schedule for August 17th, the day of the murder.
He didn't know until the day before he was killed that he was going to be there.
How is Sabrina telling you within two weeks of August 17th that Rob was going to be there on August 17th?
That seems strange. Not sure.
When it's his time to present witnesses, Terry calls three people to the stand who are very close to Sabrina.
Her two children and her sister Julie.
She's an amazing mother. Her heart and soul is everything in those kids. She had nothing but love, love, love. Would she ever, in your opinion,
be involved in anything that would harm Rob?
No.
I was so ready and so on fire to tell the truth
that she didn't have anything to do
with her husband's murder.
So the prosecution had Jonathan Herne as their star witness. The defense?
Well, they had Sabrina Lamone as their star witness.
This time the defense is called Sabrina Lamone to the stand.
I felt it was necessary for Sabrina to testify because I think the jury needed to get to know who she was.
They needed to understand why she had become involved
with Jonathan Hearn.
Was there something about your relationship with Jonathan
that you felt you needed?
Apparently, there was.
And at that time, it became our sacred relationship.
And I guess that's's now looking at it,
what I was lacking in my life and my marriage.
But while Sabrina admits to planning a future
with Jonathan, she says she thought she could also
continue having a life with her husband.
Were you at any time seriously really considering leaving Rob?
No.
Why not?
I couldn't imagine my life without Rob.
Why?
Because I loved him.
Sabrina testifies that any life insurance money that she got was put into a savings
account for her kids and to pay for living expenses.
She also strongly denies ever hatching a plot with Jonathan to poison Rob's dessert.
Did he ever provide you with any vanilla wafer banana pudding to give to Robert?
No.
Sabrina testifies that she was grief stricken
when she was notified that her husband had been killed. I dropped to my knees
started crying. Did you and Jonathan at all that day ever talk about him killing
Robert? No. Were you aware at that time that Jonathan had killed Robert? No.
But prosecutor Eric Smith argues that
Sabrina was hardly acting like a grieving widow, pointing to text that she
sent to Jonathan shortly after her husband's funeral. Oh how I love you. I
adore you Jonathan Hearn! You sexy guy. Did you write that? Well, apparently I did.
I can't explain that time in my life.
It's unexplainable.
Two days later, I want to kiss you right now and not stop.
Unexplainable.
Sabrina is also questioned about those wiretaps,
where prosecutors say she was tipping off Jonathan
about the details of the police investigation.
Detective Meyer called me. He got a state witness tip re-releasing the video.
Sabrina testifies that she was just following Jonathan's directions.
He wanted to know everything that was going on and I told him. I trusted him. He had told me that,
you know, just the dangers of what could happen when an affair is exposed, how
the police think and how they work.
On the stand, Sabrina Lamone was very emotion tired and devastated, and I don't know that she came across the
way she should have to the jury.
Sabrina Lamon's fate is now in the hands of the jury. And the question is, did she make her case
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Closing arguments are set to take place tomorrow after the prosecution and the defense rested this afternoon.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
In his closing argument, Richard Terry really tried to hammer
home that Jonathan Hearn had an incentive to get on the stand
and potentially lie because he was given this plea deal.
He, to save his own hide, came in and spun his story so that he would have to be out of prison in the future. and to take away her.
In Eric Smith's closing arguments,
he really points to a lot of evidence showing
that Sabrina Lamone had to have known and played a part
in the plot to kill Robert Lamone.
That's in the text messages, that's in the pre-planning,
that's in the cell phone locations,
that's in the wiretaps, it in the pre-planning, that's in the cell phone locations,
that's in the wiretaps, it's throughout, it's replete throughout.
She needs to be held accountable for what she did with Jonathan Hearn.
She needs to be held accountable for letting her husband suffer because he did.
After 15 days and dozens of witnesses heard, the Sabrina Lamone murder case is now
in the hands of the jury. There's no way to predict how a jury is going to come back.
Any lawyer who says, well, this is a slam dunk win, I can guarantee you, are lying through
their teeth. I was hopeful that they would haveit her. So after about five or so hours,
the jury came back with the long-awaited verdict.
We, the jury, empanel to try the above-entitled cause,
find the defendant, Sabrina LeMond,
guilty of a felony to wit, murder of Robert LeMond.
When the jury came back,
my first reaction was disappointment,
anger, frustration. She didn't do this.
I know that.
She's an amazing mother, amazing person.
She would never do anything like this. When that verdict came, it was
heart-wrenching.
And we had
so many people come up to us
and just say, how wrong,
how wrong it was.
That was not
the right verdict.
It was all very difficult to listen to
when it's someone that you've loved your whole
life and you get to listen to people planning what they're going to do or what they've
done to end his life.
Sabrina Lamone is convicted on four of the six counts against her, including
first-degree murder, attempted murder, solicitation of murder, and conspiracy.
The one thing she's acquitted of is the alleged poison banana pudding attempt on
Robert's life. We the jury find it to be not true that Sabrina Lamone placed the
pudding with arsenic into Robert Lamone's lunch. The jury did not true that Sabrina Lemon placed the pudding with arsenic into Robert Lemon's lunch.
The jury did not buy that she had anything to do with that, clearly.
But then it makes you wonder then on what grounds did they think she had something to do with this ultimate murder.
In November of 2017, Jonathan Hearn is officially sentenced to the terms of his plea deal. In stark contrast to when he was on the stand testifying against Sabrina Lamone, this time
at his sentencing, Jonathan Hearn was emotional from the start.
But there's no public remorse or apology from Sabrina Lamone.
She immediately files a motion with a new attorney asking for a new trial,
saying that her previous lawyer, Richard Terry,
should never have put her on the stand in the first place.
I don't know why he even put her on the stands.
To me it wasn't a good choice because it really didn't do good for her.
Was I nervous about it?
Yeah.
But it's not my decision to make.
She made the decision herself
and I think she had to stand up for herself.
On February 21 of 2018, now going into four years
since her husband was brutally gunned down,
Sabrina Lamone hears her fate.
Okay.
I've read and considered the briefs and I've heard the oral arguments
regarding the motion for new trial.
Motion for new trial is denied.
Proceed to sentencing.
Sabrina is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, plus an additional 16 months.
At the hearing, Robert Lamone's sister Lydia speaks.
I believe God gave Sabrina a choice, build a friendship or choose to deceit by concealing an affair
that resulted in the murder of our brother.
Sabrina had all the power to make the final decisions to do what was right.
Instead, she made the decisions that brought overroaming, destruction, division, brokenness
to the two most affected by her actions, her brother's children.
I think she's just sort of life imprisoned myself.
She cheated my brother out of a relationship with his children.
She cheated the children from having a father.
After her sentencing, Sabrina Lamone is now living behind bars at a California women's prison,
out of sight and out of mind.
But could her conviction soon be overturned?
Today I'm in Chino, California, driving to see my client, Sabrina Lamone,
who's incarcerated at the California Institution for Women.
Sabrina's been doing really well
ever since she's been incarcerated.
Today we're going to discuss possible further steps to take in the appellate process.
How was she doing in prison?
I saw her very recently and I was very impressed.
She has a lot of remorse for how her family was destroyed
and she takes responsibility that that would not have occurred
if she had not engaged in that lifestyle.
But I do not believe she should have been convicted of murder,
soliciting murder or conspiracy to commit murder.
On appeal, Valerie Watts argues that Sabrina was wrongfully convicted
because Jonathan Hearn's testimony was never corroborated.
If you took away Jonathan's testimony and you just had Sabrina's testimony
that she at one point told Jonathan where her husband worked and that he'd be working that day.
How does that prove her intent to kill?
But to prosecutors and to the jury, apparently, bought it, that gave him an indication of
when and where to find her husband.
They see that as corroboration.
It corroborates that, but how is the content of his other testimony corroborated, that
she had the intent to kill, that she asked him to killborated, that she had the intent to kill,
that she asked him to kill her husband,
that she conspired to kill him?
There's nothing. Nothing.
But the Court of Appeals rejects that argument,
saying the law doesn't require corroboration of criminal intent.
I feel that it was insufficient corroboration of his testimony,
but the Court of Appeal disagreed.
We filed a petition for review in the California Supreme Court, that was denied.
She's exhausted her state remedies, which allows her now to proceed in federal court.
Jonathan, now 33 years old, is currently behind bars at the Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, California.
Jonathan is occupied in prison in an administrative capacity and he's also
participated in the prison ministry. And you're convinced that he told the truth?
Absolutely and I think 12 people in the jury saw it the same. Jonathan killed
Robert on his own. An absolutely manipulative monster took Robert's life and Sabrina is paying the price for it.
I believe Sabrina only used Jonathan to get what she wanted and still is not
admitting her part in all the circumstances that revolved around my
brother's death.
These are my brother's ashes. It's a way to always keep him close to my heart.
He was my baby brother.
He's just no longer with us, but I can keep his memory
and the times that we got to share together, you know, close to me.
A sister's love for her brother, and we should point out tonight that Sabrina Lamone
will be eligible for parole in 2033.
Jonathan Hearn will be eligible five years earlier in 2028.
That's our program for tonight.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Deborah Roberts.
And I'm David Muir from all of us here
at 20-20 and ABC News.
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This is Deborah Roberts.
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