The second trial of a a Virginia woman accused of killing her mother and sister and staging it as a murder suicide went no better for her than the first, as a fresh panel of jurors convicted Megan Hargan of two counts of first degree murder.

Hargan 40, was first convicted in March 2022 in the 2017 deaths of Pamela Hargan, 63, and Helen Hargan, 23. Prosecutors said that the defendant was angry because her mother wouldn’t give her $400,000 to buy a house, as CrimeOnline reported. She staged the scene to make it look like Helen Hargan killed her mother and then herself.

A judge threw out the conviction, however, when one of the jurors conducted his own test to determine if Helen Hargan could have committed suicide the .22 rifle used and shared that information with the rest of the jury.

The day before the murders, Megan Hargan tried to transfer money from her mother’s account for the house, but the bank flagged the transfer as a fraud. All three women — and Megan’s 8-year-old daughter — lived at Pamela Hargan’s home.

During the trial, Helen’s boyfriend, who lived in Texas, testified that he was on the phone with Helen as her mother was killed. The boyfriend said Helen told him that Megan killed their mother. Though Helen said she never saw her mother’s body, her boyfriend testified that she overheard her mother gasping for air as the door was cracked open.

The 8-year-old was home at the time.

The second trial was largely the same as the first, and the verdict was exactly the same, Law&Crime reported.

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[Featured image: Pamela Hargan, Megan Hargan, and Helen Hargan/Fairfax County Police Department]