Verdict and Aftermath:

    On November sixth, 1984, the jury returned with their verdict. While the rest of the gang panicked over their fate, Janine lived it up around the town without a care in the world. In fact, one bar tender remembered seeing her there.

    "She really did think that she really was going to get any Scot-free," he said, "She ordered a cherry soda from my bar. Janine liked it so much that she told me, 'I'll have another one these tomorrow night. Make it a double.' I still remember her laughing about it." The laughter came to an end at ten in the morning. The foremen rose from the bench.

    All of the kids in the group were found guilty.

    "Janine didn't even show any emotion," Wendy said, "She didn't blink." The rest of the group looked so pale. While the verdict was a small victory, no relief followed behind.

    "Sure we got them, but the victim's still not awake," Sheriff Colin told the interviewer, "When and if she wakes up, she's going to be scarred for the rest of her life-- memories or not."

    Two weeks after the verdict, the sentencing came. All of the other asked for leniency. Some of them were granted it while others weren't.

    "They all can't plead for the same thing," a journalist said, "Some of them needed to take responsibility for what they did. They could've made a better decision. One of them could've went to the police before it even happened." Janine tried one more time to play the innocence card to get away.

    "I am very sorry for what I have done," she read to the court, "If I could, I would take it all back. I have learned my lesson now."

    "Everyone knew she was lying," Chris said, "Just another sorry attempt to snake her way out of this." Judge apparently felt the same way and slapped her with the harshest penalty-- fifteen to twenty years without the possibility for parole. For all parties involved, they all can't change the fact that one night ruined the lives of a town around them to this day. "Bella's" mother no longer lives in that house and no one knows where she went.

    "I can't help but to wonder what could've been if that girl and Janine had never crossed paths," Sheriff Colin said, "Her life and all those lives are over now. Over something stupid."

    Janine exhausted all of her appeals and served out her time. Her victim is still in a coma. The victim's mother still hasn't come in to inquire about her daughter.

Empty Justice