The last week of October 2005, residents across the Tennessee Valley prayed that authorities would quickly find Judy Jester's killer.

News of the slaying of the 55-year-old, popular Hatton Elementary School first-grade teacher at the Family Education Campus in Moulton shocked family, friends, fellow teachers and former and current students, but also struck a nerve with North Alabama residents who had never met Ms. Jester.

Ms. Jester died at Huntsville Hospital four days after Lawrence County High School senior C.J. Carlisle found her beaten and bloody, lying on the cafeteria floor. Ms. Jester had been working after school when she was attacked, robbed and beaten.

Police arrested Demetrick Young, then 15, the following day, and later charged him with Ms. Jester's murder. Last week, a jury convicted Mr. Young of capital murder and Circuit Judge Philip Reich sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mr. Young testified last week that he and three friends went to a fourth friend's house after school Oct. 26, 2005, smoked marijuana and plotted how to get money to pay a bootlegger for alcohol.

What happened next is in dispute, but there is no question Mr. Young was present when Ms. Jester was beaten. She scratched his face. District Attorney Jim Osborn said the scratch was Ms. Jester's message for police.

Good police work and a diligent prosecution led to Mr. Young's arrest and conviction. Justice has been served. Now is a time for healing.

The murder makes us wonder how life can be so cruel; how God can allow someone like Ms. Jester — who had dedicated her life to teaching youngsters, and who was loved by family, friends and students — to die so young and in such a brutal manner. We find the circumstances surrounding her murder especially troubling: An eighth-grader, high on pot, beat her to death to get $10 to buy alcohol.

We may never fully understand why God would allow this to happen. His ways are not our ways.

But we can still take comfort in knowing he is in control and he is good. That is a peace that surpasses understanding, and we hope Demetrick Young eventually gets that peace, too.

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