Three people were sentenced on Monday for mutilating the body of a 19-year-old woman in Virginia after she was shot dead two years ago. Her body was dismembered and later burned to avoid as a part of a cover-up for the murder.
David W Newton, 22, shot Megan Metzger in the face at a gathering in Spotsylvania County in 2018. Some members of the group were using methamphetamine together when Newton accused Metzger of being a police informant and killed her, court testimony from police, and the defendants revealed.
Covering Metzger's murder
Juan Benavidez III, 20, and Keelyn R Codynah, 25, were accused of covering the murder by mutilating the corpse and disposing of the body parts by burning them in different locations. Robert Keating, 27, the owner of the house where the crime took place, was accused of trading the murder weapon for drugs, and other means to cover up the killing, according to Associated Press.
Reports said Spotsylvania Circuit Judge William Glover sentenced Benavidez to serve 13 years, Codynah for 16 years and Keating to serve 21 years for crimes including defiling a dead body and assisting in the cover-up by being an accessory after the fact to murder. The three people were sentenced a month after Newton was convicted of first-degree murder. He is serving a 40-year sentence for Metzger's murder.
Georgia college student was strangled to death: reports
The sentence came days after autopsy reports revealed Anitra Gunn; a Georgia college student was strangled to death by accused US Army soldier stationed at Fort Gordon. DeMarcus Little, 23, was charged with a new murder charge by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation hours after he was granted a $10,000 bail for criminal damage to the property last week.
Gunn was reported missing in an investigation that was led by the Fort Valley Police Department on February 14, 2020. Her body was found on Monday in a wooded area in Greer Road in Crawford County, Georgia. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Medical Examiner's Office in Macon identified the body as Anitra Lashay Gunn on Wednesday. A day later, the GBI quoting autopsy results ruled the 22-year-old-student's death as a homicide.
She was an agriculture student at Fort Valley State University, Georgia. While no information, other than the recent Gunn's cause of death has been released due to the ongoing investigation, the Fort Valley police had previously arrested Little for smashing the windows of Gunn's house and slashing the tires of her car earlier this month.
