CALDWELL -- Eighteen years after a brutal roadside assault on a Canyon County motorist, Sarah Pearce's case is coming to an end.
Judge Juneal C. Kerrick ruled on Thursday to close the case after 35-year-old Pearce spends 231 more days in custody, bringing an end to the drawn-out saga that intensified after a different judge acknowledged problems with the investigation and trial.
Pearce was a teenager when she was accused of participating in the 2000 attack on Linda LeBrane along Interstate 84. LeBrane was forced off the road, beaten and stabbed, then left to die after her assailants set her car on fire.
LeBrane survived, and identified Pearce as one of her attackers. Pearce denied involvement but was ultimately convicted of attempted murder, robbery, arson and other charges.
She spent 11 years in prison before a judge reopened the case in 2014, troubled by issues with the case including eyewitnesses who later recanted and problems with a police lineup. Pearce was resentenced to time served and released from prison.
But her legal troubles did not end there. In the years that followed, Pearce was repeatedly accused of violating her probation in the case, with arrests for theft and drug charges.
She returned to prison in 2016, after admitting to violating her probation in the LeBrane case. According to court documents, an officer found a knife and a used syringe in her car; Pearce later admitted she had been using methamphetamine.
The remaining 231 days will be served in the Canyon County Jail, although Pearce technically remains an inmate of the Idaho Department of Correction. She is scheduled for release in December.
