Georgia teenager Cassandra Bjorge, 17, and ex-boyfriend Johnny Hiro Rider, 19, each got two life sentences on Friday in the murders of Bjorge’s grandparents Wendy and Randall Bjorge. The least you need to know about the crime can be summed up by shocked Gwinnett County Judge Debra K. Turner.
“I just continued to be stunned that you sealed areas so that you could make sure the smell of decaying human flesh wouldn’t be noticed,” she said in court. “That you had parties and ordered Chinese food, with two people that you had brutally murdered lying upstairs.”
Rider would have faced a possible death penalty because he is an adult, but that’s a moot point because he pleaded guilty to the crime. He and Bjorge admitted to murder, aggravated assault, and theft for killing the grandparents last April. They can seek parole in 60 years. They must also serve a concurrent 21-year sentence.
According to prosecutors, the defendants entered the couple’s home at night, kicked them, punched them, struck them with a tire iron, and stabbed them to death.
Police discovered that Cassandra Bjorge and Rider sealed the bodies in a bedroom. Cops said the teens spent time in the home, ordering takeout food, smoking marijuana, and hosting parties, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Bjorge said nothing in court on Friday. Rider asked for forgiveness.
“Please, I beg you all, forgive me for what I have done,” he told the surviving family members in court, according to WSB-TV. “For it is written, if you forgive.”
The outlet said that Bjorge and Rider have broken up. Each defendant blamed the other for the murder plot.
[Screengrab via Fox 5 Atlanta]
