A homicide defendant has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Authorities said that the man confessed in court that he did kill a 33-year-old man, mutilated his corpse using a hacksaw and stuffed the rest of the remains inside two suitcases in southwest Denver late last year.
Benjamin Satterthwaite’s guilty plea was announced by the Denver District Attorney’s (DA) Office on Thursday morning and called the findings “horrific,” CBS Denver reported.
Investigators claimed that on Dec. 29, in the 1700 block of South Java Way, in the Mar Lee neighborhood, city park workers and clean-up crew were piling up snow from the sidewalk when they discovered the suitcases. DNA analysis was used to determine the identity of the remains inside the suitcases. The victim was identified as Joshua Lockard, who authorities believe was killed a couple of days before the apparent discovery.
Lockard’s cause of death was never determined as per Denver’s DA’s office.
Satterthwaite, 29, was arrested by the Denver police in an apartment on South Federal Boulevard after responding to a medical call, which appeared to relate to a drug overdose, as per the affidavit. The first responders then found a woman dead and a man unconscious. The man was immediately rushed to a medical facility and was in serious condition.
Coincidentally, the investigator who was working on the Lockard homicide case is the same person who was assigned to investigate the overdose death. The officer then returned to the apartment and found key evidence that the man who survived the drug overdose was Satterthwaite, further evidence related him with the homicide case. Investigators believed that the suspect and the victim knew each other.
Beth McCann, District Attorney in Denver said that they thank the victim’s family for supporting the decision of them accepting the defendant’s guilty plea, 9 News reported.
She added that this was indeed a horrific murder, however, Lockard’s cause of death was never determined, which makes Satterthwaite’s guilty plea and probable length of his sentence the right outcome.
Satterthwaite could be facing a minimum of 25 years in prison if proven guilty. He is booked to be sentenced on Nov. 12 this year.
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