GOSHEN, Ind. — A northern Indiana man convicted for his role in the 2019 torture-slaying of a woman whose body was dumped in southern Michigan has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A judge gave Donald Owen Jr., 22, the life sentence Thursday despite pleas for a lesser sentence from Kimberly Dyer’s mother and aunt, who cited evidence that another man had killed Dyer.
But Elkhart Circuit Court Judge Michael Christofeno said he agreed with the jury’s finding that prosecutors had proved their case for life without parole, based on the circumstances of the crime.
Owen, of Elkhart, was convicted in April along with co-defendant Mario Angulo Jr., 20, of murder in the Columbia City woman’s October 2019 killing. Angulo will be sentenced June 24, The Elkhart Truth reported.
A third man charged in connection with Dyer’s killing was sentenced last week to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to Dyer’s confinement and torture.
Prosecutors said Dyer, 31, was tortured for hours in the basement of an Elkhart house before Angulo killed her by slicing her throat with the glass after Owen ordered that she be “put to sleep.”
Trial evidence showed that Dyer was accused by people at the house, described as a haven for methamphetamine users, as having a so-called “snitch list” of names. Her body was found inside a trash bin dumped and covered in a marshy area near Constantine, Michigan.
