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WEST JORDAN - The conviction of a woman who struck and killed a bicyclist in Big Cottonwood Canyon last year should send a message that motorists who hit bicyclists will be held accountable, the victim's family said Thursday.

Elizabeth DeSeelhorst, meanwhile, showed no reaction as a jury found her guilty of negligent homicide in the Sept. 18, 2004, death of Josie Johnson.

But minutes later, the 67-year-old woman was hustled from the courthouse by a phalanx of family members who deflected news reporters with silence and angry glares.

Johnson's family said the verdict left them with mixed feelings - happy the case is finally over; sad the trial had dredged up the pain of their loss.

Ken Johnson said he has yearned to know the truth of what happened to his sister.

"I think we know the truth today," he said. "We cut through the crap."

Johnson's death prompted a vocal outcry in Utah's cycling community, which has complained for years about motorists' inattentiveness to cyclists.

Ken Johnson said he hopes his sister's death continues to be a force in promoting safer roads for bicycle riders.

He noted bike-awareness signs have been posted in the Wasatch canyons, and efforts are afoot to create and widen bike lanes elsewhere in the county.

"Josie, in some way, through all these things, lives on," he said. "Her legacy goes forward."

DeSeelhorst faces up to a year in jail when she is sentenced Feb. 3 by Judge Royal Hansen.

Ken Johnson said that given DeSeelhorst's medical history, "jail time would be unreasonable."

However, the victim's father, Richard Johnson, did not rule out a jail sentence. "The value of jail time is it sends a little better message to the community," he said. "It reminds us that nobody is above the law."

A civil lawsuit against the DeSeelhorsts, who own Solitude Ski Resort, was a possibility, Richard Johnson said.

Defense attorneys Rebecca Hyde and Greg Skordas had sought to lay the blame for the crash on DeSeelhorst's history of mini-strokes.

A neurologist testified DeSeelhorst was suffering from a stroke-induced brain seizure, and was essentially unconscious, when she plowed into the back of the cyclist.

But prosecutor Chris Bown argued the doctor based his opinion, in part, on falsities conjured up by DeSeelhorst, who admitted during the trial that she and her husband had fabricated information she wrote on a police report.

Bown claimed that DeSeelhorst's ability to "make up a scenario" that absolved her of any wrongdoing showed she had a high level of mental awareness and a desire to avoid responsibility for the fatality.

A key statement, Bown said, was DeSeelhorst's comments to a passer-by, who asked her if the biker was headed down-canyon and had collided head-on with the Jeep.

DeSeelhorst corrected the man by saying they were both traveling up the canyon. Moments later, DeSeelhorst broke off the conversation, apparently realizing she might be saying too much, Bown said.

She also had the presence of mind to pull her vehicle to the side of roadway, and to call her husband at nearby Solitude resort to come to the scene.

Defense attorney Hyde told jurors the picture painted by the prosecutor - that DeSeelhorst hit the biker for no apparent reason then called her husband so they could concoct a story - was "monstrous."

Hyde insisted everything that occurred was "completely consistent with someone who has had a medical episode."

Medical records show DeSeelhorst had a major stroke in 1991 and a brain seizure in 1994. A recent brain scan shows numerous brain lesions, indicating she has continued to suffer mini-strokes.

DeSeelhorst was taking prescription drugs to prevent blood clots and seizures, but Hyde said the medications are not foolproof.

The jurors - five men and one woman - deliberated nearly five hours but declined to talk to the news media.

Johnson was hit while riding up the canyon about 4 p.m. on a clear, sunny day. Gouge marks in the asphalt made by the bike and marks on DeSeelhorst's vehicle show the Jeep was straddling the fog line, with its right wheels in the gravel when it struck the bike, according to a police reconstruction of the crash.

Police say Johnson would have been visible to a driver from 600 feet away.

At trial, DeSeelhorst claimed she had no awareness of the cyclist until Johnson's body smashed into her windshield.

In her statement to police, however, she said she noticed the biker 150 feet ahead of her and that DeSeelhorst steered into the left passing lane, at which time the cyclist suddenly swerved directly in front of her.