SPOKANE, Wash. – In 2008, 18-year-old Sarah Clark and 20-year-old Tanner Pehl were .
A bloody fingerprint, clothes and knives led investigators to then 20-year-old Justin Crenshaw.
In a 2010 trial, Crenshaw was diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, and his defense team pointed to alcohol-induced blackouts.
Crenshaw was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
After that 2010 conviction, parents of the two victims spoke with Non Stop Local.
“I don’t know if you ever get justice for losing a son like we did,” father David Pehl said. “But it’s as good as we’re going to get.”
Sarah’s father, Steve Clark, shared his feelings of relief but also noted the enduring pain of Sarah’s loss.
“I guess that’s the big thing, the relief we feel,” Clark said. “But it doesn’t really change things for us, we don’t have Sarah.”
Now, 11 years after the original sentencing of life in prison, Crenshaw’s sentence is being reconsidered due to the Monschke decision.
This decision states that individuals who committed aggravated murder between the ages of 18 and 20 and received a mandatory life sentence without parole must be resentenced.
The decision applied to a very narrow group of individuals, including Crenshaw.
At Crenshaw’s resentencing, the courts are tasked with determining whether “mitigating factors of youth” could warrant a different sentence.
In a Spokane County Court filing, the state is asking for the court to reinstate life without parole, citing evidence from the crime scene and a recent psychological evaluation as proof needed to maintain Crenshaw’s sentence.
Crenshaw’s actions have left the victims’ families with their own life sentences.
“We still have a life sentence of life without Sarah,” Sarah’s mother Teesha Clark explained during a .
The victims loved ones, say that Sarah and Tanner’s memories live on, after all these years.
“My brother was probably the best person I’ve ever met,” Katie Hays said.
The victims families received a call about Crenshaw’s resentencing in 2023, but two years later, that day in court has finally arrived. Crenshaw will appear in court Monday morning.
