The defense argued that the case was wholly circumstantial, that no physical evidence directly tied Gerhartsreiter to the killing, and that the prosecution’s reconstruction depended on inferences that a jury should not treat as proof beyond a reasonable doubt. They did not offer an alternative account of what had actually happened.
After approximately one day of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict on April 10, 2013: guilty of first-degree murder, with a deadly-weapon enhancement.
Jury forewoman Kristen Lee, an attorney, confirmed the verdict. The jury had deliberated relatively briefly given the complexity of the case — a reflection, in the reading of observers, of how clearly the circumstantial evidence, taken as a whole, had pointed in one direction.
On August 15, 2013, Gerhartsreiter was sentenced by the court to the maximum term: twenty-seven years to life. He represented himself at the sentencing hearing.
At sentencing, he maintained his innocence and offered a specific theory: “I firmly believe that the victim’s wife killed the victim.”
Linda Sohus has never been found. No evidence has emerged to support any explanation of what happened to her. Her case remains an open missing persons investigation.
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## What Twenty-Seven Years to Life Means
The sentence of twenty-seven years to life is not a fixed term. It establishes a minimum prison period after which Gerhartsreiter becomes eligible for parole consideration, not a release date.
In 2015, the sentence was reduced on appeal to twenty-six years to life — a reduction of one year, the result of a successful legal challenge to some element of the sentencing calculation.