Thursday, September 4, 2003 10:26 pm

Pharr teens sentenced: Adams and Macias get life; Lozano sentenced to 15 years

By Sarah Ovaska
Monitor Staff Writer
sovaska@themonitor.com

EDINBURG — Robbie Adams cried Thursday when she heard her 16-year-old daughter will spend her life in a Texas prison.
Shirley Saulsbury, the great-grandmother of the convicted girl, shook in disbelief.
The convicted murderer, Meghan Adams, bowed her head and stood without expression and without reaction.
Three generations of women — three different reactions to an event that has consumed their lives since Jan Barnum, 57, was strangled to death in a plan concocted by Adams and two of her friends.
Barnum was Adams’ grandmother, Saulsbury’s daughter and mother to Robbie Adams.
Franciso Macias, 15, who strangled Barnum with a school ribbon, was also given a life sentence Thursday. When 275th State District Judge Juan R. Partida read the sentence, Macias’ face registered little reaction.
Christopher Lozano, 15, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. Lozano, in a confession to police, claimed he did not plan the murder but wanted to steal the dead woman’s car and run away to Louisiana.
Jurors deliberated for six hours Thursday before handing down their sentences.
After the sentencing, all three teenagers were escorted out of the court by sheriff’s deputies. None made eye contact or attempted to speak with family members waiting in the courtroom.
Since the trial began two weeks ago, the three teenagers have shown little emotion. Lozano and Adams briefly cried when convicted last Friday.
“ They haven’t even accepted that they are responsible,” said Murray Moore, prosecutor for the case. “The remorse is because they got caught, because they didn’t get to finish their plan.”
Defense attorneys asked jurors to consider the young ages of the teenagers and allow probation sentences.
“Please do not commit another tragedy by sending this young man away to prison for a long time,” said Rogelio Garza, attorney for Macias.
With the life punishments in the case of Adams and Macias, parole is not an option.
Barnum’s body was found strangled March 5 in her apartment by a Pharr police office returning Adams to her home. The three teenagers were found at a Pharr convenience store earlier that night with Barnum’s car and told police they were trying to run away to Louisiana. The teens, who all pleaded innocent, gave statements to police hours after the body was discovered. All three indicated Macias strangled the woman. Macias said he wanted to stop strangling the woman, but that Adams stood, holding a phone, and said she would call the police if he stopped.
After the woman was killed, Lozano went back into the house to get Adams’ hamster and blanket, according to his confession.
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Sarah Ovaska covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor.