ATHENS, Texas — A Texas woman was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to shooting and killing her two young daughters in 2017.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the death penalty against Sarah Nicole Henderson in exchange for her pleading guilty to two counts of capital murder in the deaths of her 5- and 7-year-old daughters.
Henderson, 31, has been in custody since her November 2017 arrest at her home near Mabank, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Dallas. She confessed when talking to investigators and said she had been planning to kill the girls and her husband for several weeks, Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse said at the time. She also told investigators she planned to kill herself, he said.
Henderson shot the girls in the head while they were sleeping in the living room. She tried to shoot her husband, Jacob Henderson, but the gun malfunctioned, Hillhouse said. She was charged with attempted murder, but the charge was dropped as part of her plea deal with prosecutors.