Roommate sentenced for 2017 killing of Foothill Farms woman

The roommate of a Foothill Farms woman who was killed in 2017 was sentenced Friday, according to the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office.

Teris Vinson, 27, was convicted in December for the murder of Janet Mejia, a Sacramento State graduate who was 28 at the time of her killing. He was also convicted on two counts of firearm possession by a convicted felon, the DA said in a press release.

Friday, Vinson was sentenced to 85 years, 4 months to life in prison, the DA said.

Mejia left her family’s home in Stockton on April 10, 2017, and never made it to work or to a doctor’s appointment she had scheduled. She had been living in Foothill Farms with Vinson and another woman, who reported her missing the following day. Her car was found abandoned in Arden Arcade two days later, according to previous reporting by The Bee.

Mejia’s body was found on April 13, 2017, wrapped in an inflatable mattress and hidden in bushes in south Placer County. Investigators determined that she had been strangled and shot in the back of the head.

Mejia, an American sign language and deaf studies graduate, was working at a Nordstrom department store in Roseville while looking for a job in her field.

Vinson was previously convicted twice on domestic violence charges, in 2012 and 2013, according to previous reporting by The Bee.