PRESCOTT, Ariz. — Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast.
A Yavapai County jury has convicted a Prescott woman of faking a kidnapping in 2018 after she fatally shot her boyfriend in the head.
Sharalyn Stura, 61, was found guilty this week of first-degree murder, evidence tampering, and false reporting to law enforcement for crimes committed in the summer of 2018.
The incident began after motorists found Stura tied to the steering wheel of her car with a dog leash near Interstate 17 and Highway 179, according to the Yavapai County Attorney's Office.
Stura initially told police she had been kidnapped from her Prescott home and forced to drive her car as the kidnapper sat in the passenger seat. When the kidnapper got out to go to the bathroom, Stura claimed she drove off with her hands still tied to the steering wheel.
Investigators later found Stura's boyfriend dead from a gunshot wound to his head at Stura's residence.
Local police then launched a large-scale manhunt for the suspected kidnapper, utilizing multiple agencies and volunteers to search the area for the suspect.
But investigators began to notice inconsistencies in Stura's story and confronted her about the conflicting information. The defendant then confessed to killing her boyfriend while he was sleeping and staging the fake kidnapping, prosecutors say.
Stura now faces a life sentence in prison when she's sentenced in court on Dec. 12.
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