'I shot my son and daughter. I don't know why': Military mom (photos)

                        

A Florida mother has been found guilty after a jury ruled she was sane when she shot dead her two teenage children.

After a day of closing arguments on Thursday, the jury returned their verdict on Julie Schenecker, a military wife who killed her 13-year-old son Beau and 16-year-old daughter Calyx in Tampa in 2011. 

Schenecker, 53, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder after prosecutors argued that she was sane at the time of the shootings. 

Before sentencing her to life in prison, without parole, the judge said: '[It's] almost too much to comprehend what brings us here.'

Schenecker and her family cried as the guilty verdict was read out. The prosecution had earlier claimed the murders had been planned because of anger at her family, and because her children were becoming 'mouthy'. 

                

The children's father, Parker Schenecker, said: 'Today's decision, for many reasons, gives my family a great sense of relief.

'While this decision doesn't bring my children back, it does give my family an opportunity to move forward.'

His wife, who has suffered years of mental illness, had detailed the killings in a journal, which was found at the murder scene.

In her journal, one entry read: 'I offed Beau on the way to practice. I accidentally shot the window then shot him. One in the side of the head and one in his mouth because he became so mouthy just like Calyx.'

Another entry, about her daughter, read: '[I] walked up without [Calyx] reacting, and shot her in the right temple. Then shot her in the mouth, her sassy little mouth.'

Both sides had presented several mental health experts as witnesses during their trial, as the defense argued that Schenecker had been legally insane.

In Florida, the defense would have needed to prove Schenecker had involuntarily committed the murders because of mental illness for her to have been declared legally insane.

They would also have needed to prove that she did not know the difference between right and wrong at the time of the killings.

In his closing arguments, prosecutor Jay Pruner said Schenecker had a 'long standing plan to kill her children,' WFLA reported.

He claimed that she had planned for her husband, Patrick, to return home and find his whole family dead.

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She had planned to kill herself after murdering her children, but passed out through a combination of pills and alcohol before she was able to.

Pruner suggested her motive was anger and resentment toward her husband, saying she intended him to come home and find his family dead.

Schenecker, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at the start of the trial, faces a life sentence after the possibility of a death penalty was ruled out.

As she was sentenced to life in prison with no parole, Schenecker addressed the court, saying: 'I shot my son and daughter, I don’t know why,' Fox 13 reported.

She apologized for the killing and, through tears, said: 'I know my children are I heaven. I want people to try to find comfort and meaning, as I do, that they are in no pain.'