Marcella Miller and her family were there as the verdict came down Friday afternoon against Oscar Soto for his Thanksgiving Day crime in 2011. Marcella Miller is now 93 and still partially paralyzed because of the shooting.
She showed an Action News reporter Friday she can lift her right arm up to chest level, but no higher. But she has not let the crime get her down, and the verdict was a big step in healing her whole family.
Marcella and Marilyn Miller's family has run the gamut of emotions since Oscar Soto broke into their home, but they hit a high note when a jury held Soto accountable.
"Justice has been done," said Marilyn Miller. "I'm so happy. I'm just so overwhelmed. I thank God for this justice. I'm so happy. I really am."
Marilyn was first to see Soto early Thanksgiving morning in 2011. He'd shot out a window to get inside their San Joaquin home because he thought they had nice stuff to steal. Miller screamed when she saw him and the sight still haunts her.
"It's something I will never forget," she said. "I still have a lot of problems, but I'm going to work through them."
When her daughter screamed, 91-year-old Marcella Miller came into the hallway. Soto shot her in the face and ran away through the same broken window he came in.
Doctors thought Marcella might die, but two years later, she was at the courthouse, hugging the attorney who prosecuted the teen who shot her.
"She's gone through the Depression," her daughter said of Marcella. "She's seen a lot of changes in her lifetime. And she always has been really strong. That's why she's still here."
Marilyn Miller says she and her mother are both a little jumpy now, but Friday's verdict will help them put it all in the past.
"The only thing I can do is get better because I can't let the bad people win," she said. "They're not going to do that to me."
Soto is facing life in prison because he used a gun in the crime. He will be sentenced in September. His mother is also in jail for allegedly helping her son hide the gun. She is expected to take a plea deal next month.
