A Colorado man who pleaded guilty to killing his Utah girlfriend with a shovel when they were both teenagers will serve at least 15 years in prison.
The judge called the beating unspeakably vicious as he handed down the sentence to 18-year-old Darwin "Christopher" Bagshaw in Salt Lake City on Monday.
Authorities say he thought Anne Kasprzak was pregnant when he killed her in March 2012, though medical examiners later found that she wasn't.
Prosecutors say Bagshaw tossed her body in a river near Salt Lake City.
The mother of 15-year-old Kasprzak said the girl noticed Bagshaw in math class and loved imagining a future with him.
His lawyers argued Bagshaw was 14 when he killed Kasprzak, too young to warrant a long sentence. The judge disagreed.
Kasprzak was killed 2012, but the investigation was delayed when police arrested two ex-convicts on a fake tip. After they were cleared, police circled back to Bagshaw, who had moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, with his family.
