Sarah Gonzalez McLinn, charged with first-degree murder in the death of her roommate last year, rejected two versions of a plea deal this week, saying she’d rather try her case before a jury.

The case is set for trial in two weeks.

Sarah B. Gonzales McLinn

McLinn’s attorney, Carl Cornwell, told Douglas County District Court Judge Paula Martin on Friday that the state had offered his client a plea deal, but she rejected the offer. The Douglas County District Attorney offered an amended plea agreement Friday, Cornwell said, but McLinn told him she would rather try her case before a jury.

“I went over (the plea offer) with my client on Wednesday and today,” Cornwell said. “While we appreciate the offer, we respectfully decline.”

McLinn, 20, sat silently with braided hair at the hearing, smiling at her family and friends as they entered the courtroom. When Martin asked if it was true she wished to reject the plea, McLinn mumbled a quiet “yes.”

McLinn is accused of killing her roommate, Lawrence Cici’s Pizza owner Harold M. Sasko, by drugging him, zip-tying his wrists and ankles and slicing his neck with a hunting knife. Sasko’s body was found on Jan. 17, 2014, at the home he shared with McLinn in the 2900 block of West 26th Street. McLinn was missing in the wake of Sasko’s death and was found more than a week later in Everglades National Park in Florida.

At her May preliminary trial, Lawrence Detective M.T. Brown said that Sasko had made sexual advances toward McLinn. Brown said Sasko sent her a text message days before his death apologizing for trying to have sex with her, but McLinn told Brown that wasn’t the reason she killed Sasko.

Brown testified that McLinn told him she killed Sasko because she “wanted to see someone die.” McLinn had written the letters “F” and “R” in Sasko’s blood on his wall in an attempt to spell out the word “freedom.”

Cornwell has maintained throughout the case’s proceedings that he plans to use the “not guilty by mental disease or defect” defense. In January, he won the right to use in trial the statements McLinn gave to a hired psychologist supporting her alleged mental deficiency. The statements relate to alleged abuse she suffered as a child, as well as information about Sasko’s conduct while he was alive.

Branson will seek a “Hard 50” sentence, or 50 years in prison, if McLinn is convicted.

McLinn’s jury trial will begin March 16. She is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a $1 million bond.