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Mary Nance Hanson, 70, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after opening fire on her former daughter-in-law in a preschool parking lot in Millcreek, Utah, killing Tetyana Nikitina on Jan. 29, 2010.

Hanson, a Taylorsville, Utah woman, approached Nikitina, 34, as Nikitina was getting into her car after finishing a shift as an assistant teacher at the Salt Lake Community Action Program Head Start school, according to Unified Police. Police said Hanson fired several rounds from a .38-caliber revolver, then reloaded and fired more as Nikitina tried to drive away.

Nikitina was shot four times in the head and died at a hospital. Her car rolled forward into another vehicle after the shooting. Hanson then put down her gun, called 911 herself and waited calmly for officers to arrive.

Hanson was Nikitina's former mother-in-law. Nikitina had divorced Hanson's son, Dale Jankowski, in 2005 after a seven-year marriage, citing a difficult relationship with Hanson in court filings and calling her "verbally abusive." The divorce and a bitter custody fight over the couple's two children continued for years afterward, and Nikitina twice sought protective orders against Jankowski.

When a 911 dispatcher asked Hanson why she had fired the shots, she said only, "I don't know, and that's all I'm going to say." She was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of murder and held on $1 million bail. Investigators searched Jankowski's Taylorsville home days later but said they found no evidence linking him to the shooting.

Hanson was charged with first-degree felony murder. She pleaded guilty in 3rd District Court on Aug. 18, 2010, and asked the judge to sentence her to death by lethal injection. When told her case did not qualify for the death penalty, she replied, "Well, then I guess I didn't do a good enough job." A judge sentenced her on Oct. 22, 2010 to 15 years to life in prison.

Nikitina had been engaged to Rod Hernandez, who was on the phone with her when the shooting happened and drove to the school after hearing what sounded like popping noises and the call go silent. The couple had planned to marry on Valentine's Day, 16 days after her death. Hernandez later organized a memorial concert for Nikitina and has continued to see her two children, who remained in their father's custody.