A Utah man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole in Wyoming one year after authorities say he and his father killed a Utah rail line worker while on the run from police following the kidnapping of a mother and her daughters.
The 23-year-old Dereck James "DJ" Harrison was sentenced Wednesday in a court in the small town of Kemmerer, Wyoming near the Utah state line.
Harrison pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder in the slaying of 63-year-old Kay Porter Ricks and avoided the death penalty.
Authorities say he and his father forced Ricks into his work truck, then beat him to death on their way to a remote Wyoming hideout where they were eventually captured.
Harrison's father, Flint Harrison, killed himself in a Utah jail last year.
DJ Harrison was convicted last year in Utah for the kidnapping of the woman and her daughters. The women survived, but were beaten while kept in a basement. The Harrisons were fleeing police after that crime when they kidnapped Ricks.
