A 20-year-old former Papa John’s restaurant employee in Indiana received the maximum prison sentence for shooting two of his former co-workers to death and attempting to “have sexual intercourse” with one of the victims after she was dead. Circuit Court Judge Michael Christofeno ordered Jose Benitez-Tilley to serve 65 years in prison for shooting and killing Haley Smith, 22, and Dustin Carr, 37, as they were working the night shift at the restaurant earlier this year, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Benitez-Tilley last month pleaded guilty in Elkhart County to two counts of murder after reaching a deal with prosecutors. Under the plea agreement, Benitez-Tilley agreed to serve two 65-year sentences to run concurrently, and prosecutors agreed to drop one count of abuse of a corpse.
Under state law, 65 years is the maximum sentence for murder without aggravating factors.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers with the Elkhart Police Department at approximately 10:11 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2022 responded to a 911 call at a Papa John’s location located in the 1500 street of Cassopolis Street. The caller was an employee who told the emergency dispatcher that he arrived at work to open the restaurant and found two employees deceased behind the building. The employee identified the two victims as Smith and Carr, noting that they had worked the closing shift the previous evening.
In an interview with investigators, the employee who found the victims told police...
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