Calling her mother a "monster," Jennifer Hoffman said the 75-year-old deserves to be in prison for fatally shooting her teen son and strongly refuted the image painted of the boy during the Detroit-area grandmother's trial. 
 
 Defendant Sandra Layne is shackled after being convicted of second-degree murder as she turns around and looks at her husband, Fred Layne, not pictured, and other family members in the courtroom in Pontiac,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this March 13, 2013 file photo, Sandra Layne testifies in the Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac, Mich. The 75-year-old Detroit-area woman was convicted of second-degree murder on Tuesday, March... (Associated Press) 
 
 Sandra Layne, of West Bloomfield Township, was found guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder in death of her 17-year-old grandson Jonathan Hoffman last May 18. 
 
 Jennifer Hoffman and her ex-husband, Michael Hoffman, said the verdict is "vindication" for their son, whose actions and lifestyle were called into question through Layne's testimony. She said she bought a gun because she feared the teen and his friends after Jonathan Hoffman came to live with her during his senior year in high school. 
 
 Layne fired 10 shots, striking Hoffman six times. She claimed she acted in self-defense during a violent argument, but the jury rejected that argument and found her guilty Tuesday. She also was convicted of using a gun during a felony and likely faces at least 14 years in prison. 
 
 "It's a final vindication for my son, to restore his good name and reputation, because over the course of the last nine months, it's been tarnished in a very cruel manner," Michael Hoffman said. 
 
 Jennifer Hoffman acknowledged that the teen had used drugs but said she wasn't aware of any deeper conflict between him and her mother. The Hoffmans, who are divorced, moved to Arizona from Michigan and had their hands full caring for a daughter with a brain tumor. They said Layne had offered to take in Jonathan Hoffman for his final year of school in 2011. 
 
 Jennifer Hoffman called her mother a "monster." 
 
 "It's really hard to comprehend that your own mother could do something like this to your own child," she told reporters. "I just know that my son is in heaven, and that's a place that she'll never see." 
 
 Layne wept quietly as the verdict was read at the end of the first full day of jury deliberations. As she was being led out of court, her wrists handcuffed to a chain around her midsection, some family members sitting with her 87-year-old husband, Fred, waved in a show of support. But she couldn't make eye contact because there was a sheriff's deputy in between. 
 
 Defense attorney Jerome Sabbota said Layne was "devastated" by the verdict and is sorrowful over her grandson's death. 
 
 "She punishes herself every day," he said. "The legal system does what the legal system does. The jury felt that it wasn't appropriate self-defense." 
 
 Layne testified last week for about five hours, portraying herself as a big-hearted grandma who felt overwhelmed when Jonathan Hoffman was briefly hospitalized for drug use a year ago. She said he was loud, coarse and argumentative in subsequent weeks and, on the day of the shooting, had tested positive for so-called synthetic marijuana, which could have triggered a probation violation. 
 
 Layne said Hoffman demanded $2,000 and a car to flee Michigan. She claimed he kicked her and struck her in the face before she shot him. 
 
 But prosecutor Paul Walton noted that she never told police she had been attacked when she immediately confessed to the killing. A hospital nurse who examined her after her arrest said Layne had no injuries and had spoken lovingly about Hoffman. 
 
 And there was also an extraordinary piece of evidence: Hoffman's own plea for help recorded during a desperate call to 911. 
 
 "My grandma shot me. I'm going to die. Help. I got shot again," he told the dispatcher as he gasped for air. 
 
 Jurors declined to comment following the verdict. But they told attorneys during a private meeting that the call was crucial to their decision. It revealed that Layne had left Hoffman bleeding but then returned with more gunfire. 
 
 "They said they played it over and over and over again" in the jury room, prosecutor Paul Walton said. 
 
 Sabbota agreed that jurors found the "911 call was critical." 
 
 Michael Hoffman said his son, clad only in socks and athletic shorts when he was shot, showed "amazing courage" in his final moments of life. 
 
 Without the 911 call, the father said, "we could have had a very different result" at trial. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP reporter Mike Householder contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Ed White at twitter.com/edwhiteap ||||| A 74-year-old woman has been charged with murder in the shooting death of her 17-year-old grandson. 
 
 Sandra Layne, 74, appears in handcuffs at the 48th District Count in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Monday, May 21, 2012. Layne has been charged with open murder in the shooting death of her 17-year-old grandson... (Associated Press) 
 
 Sandra Layne, 74, appears in handcuffs at the 48th District Count in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Monday, May 21, 2012. Layne has been charged with open murder in the shooting death of her 17-year-old grandson... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police said Jonathan Hoffman called police and told an emergency dispatcher that he had been shot in the chest by his grandmother, Sandra Layne, and "was going to die." By the time officers arrived at the family's upscale condo in a Detroit suburb, police said at least four more shots from a .40-caliber handgun had been pumped into the high school senior. 
 
 A West Bloomfield Township detective told a judge during a Monday court hearing that eight entry and exit wounds were found in Hoffman's body after the Friday afternoon shooting in the condo he shared with his grandparents northwest of Detroit. 
 
 Layne's lawyer Jerome Sabbota has said Hoffman was troubled, Layne was afraid of her grandson and she fired her new handgun because she felt she had no choice. 
 
 Layne has been charged with open murder and is being held without bond. She stood mute in court when the charge was read, and a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf. An open murder charge allows a jury to decide on whether a first- or second-degree charge applies after hearing evidence. 
 
 Hoffman had been attending an alternative high school in nearby Farmington and living with his maternal grandparents so he could complete his senior year while his divorced parents settled in Arizona, according to his father, Michael Hoffman of Scottsdale, Arizona. 
 
 One of Layne's attorneys, Mitchell Ribitwer, told reporters Monday that drugs and drug paraphernalia apparently belonging to the teen were found at the condo after Hoffman was killed. 
 
 Michael Hoffman said that regardless of his son's behavior, the teen was unarmed and didn't deserve to be shot to death. 
 
 Detective Brad Boulet testified about Hoffman's emergency call and said when officers arrived at the condo, Layne was inside, behind a screened door. 
 
 "She put the gun on the floor after being ordered so by officers," Boulet said. "She exclaimed she had just murdered her grandson." 
 
 Wearing an orange jumpsuit in court, Layne smiled and nodded to her husband and other family members. 
 
 Ribitwer described her to the judge as a retired teacher who has lived in the West Bloomfield area for 30 years. His requests for a reasonable bond and electronic tether monitor for Layne were denied. A pre-examination conference for Layne was set for Thursday morning. 
 
 Prosecutors had no comment after the hearing. Layne's husband and other relatives attended the hearing but also didn't comment. 
 
 Police had responded in March to a domestic disturbance at Layne's home. 
 
 "I spoke to the officer who responded, and he indicated this young man was totally out of control in the street," defense attorney Ribitwer told reporters Monday. "He was derogatory to his grandmother. He was yelling and shouting and almost got into it with the police." 
 
 Jonathan Hoffman's funeral is set for Tuesday. ||||| A West Bloomfield grandmother was charged with open murder today in the shooting death of her 17-year-old grandson. 
 
 
 
 With her husband in court and family members waving to her, Sandra Layne, a former schoolteacher, sat silently today, bowing her head as a West Bloomfield police detective described her grandson, Jonathan Hoffman, pleading for help with a 911 operator. 
 
 
 
 “The subject stated that his gramma had just shot him in the chest and that he was going to die and he pleaded for help,” Detective Brad Boulet testified in 48th District Court in Bloomfield Township. “At approximately the three-minute mark of the 911 call, the subject screamed and exclaimed he had just been shot again.” 
 
 
 
 Police arriving on the scene heard several gunshots, Boulet said. They then ordered Layne, who came to the front door with a gun in her right hand, to come out of the house. 
 
 
 
 “While walking toward the officers Ms. Layne exclaimed that she had just murdered her grandson,” Boulet said. Upstairs, they found the teen unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead at Botsford Hospital. The Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Hoffman had eight entry or exit gunshot wounds and two bullets still in his body, Boulet testified. 
 
 
 
 Judge Marc Barron ordered Layne, the victim's maternal grandmother, held without bond. She faces up to life in prison if convicted. 
 
 
 
 She's next scheduled to appear May 24 for a preliminary hearing. Assistant County Prosecutor Jason Pernick said there's a question of whether she is competent to stand trial. 
 
 
 
 Her lawyer, Mitch Ribitwer, testified that the married mother of five and grandmother of nine worked as a school teacher in California before moving to West Bloomfield 30 years ago. He said she's been married for 28 years. 
 
 
 
 "She's never been in trouble before," Ribitwer said outside the courtroom. "(She's) very distraught, very upset. It's a very difficult time." 
 
 
 
 In court, she kept looking back at her husband and three people with him, as a young man raised an arm to wave to her. The family members declined to comment as they left the courthouse. 
 
 
 
 Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Paul Walton said Layne is being charged with open murder because it covers both first degree murder -- which includes accusations that she planned the crime -- and second degree murder. She could face up to life in prison if she's convicted. 
 
 
 
 "The jury makes the decision of the degree," Walton said. "If the case gets bound over, the jury makes the ultimate call." 
 
 
 
 Aside from her initial exclamations outside her home on Friday, Layne has not talked to investigators about the death of her grandson, West Bloomfield Police Lt. Tim Diamond said today. 
 
 
 
 Ribitwer's law partner, Jerome Sabbota, said Saturday that his client fired the .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic because "she was afraid." 
 
 
 
 She's not explaining to investigators what made her afraid, Diamond said. And she hasn't said anything about why she didn't send him to his parents, who recently moved to Arizona but had left the teen in Michigan with Layne so he could finish school. 
 
 
 
 "That's the million-dollar question," Diamond said this morning. "Hopefully, we'll find an answer in the next few weeks." 
 
 
 
 Ribitwer declined to comment when asked what led to the incident.
– A 75-year-old Michigan woman has been found guilty of the second-degree murder of her teenage grandson last year. The jury rejected Sandra Layne's claim that she shot Jonathan Hoffman, 17, in self-defense. The teen was shot multiple times and jurors were played a harrowing 911 call in which he pleaded for help, the Detroit Free Press reports. "My grandma shot me. I'm going to die," he said, before being shot again in the stomach. Layne, who appeared shocked by the guilty verdict, claimed she had been afraid of the grandson sent to live with her to finish his last year in high school and she shot him after he hit her during an argument over money, the AP reports. Layne's daughter says her mother is a "monster" who fully deserves to be in prison for the boy's death. She described the guilty verdict as "a final vindication for my son, to restore his good name and reputation."