A handyman in Florida will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a woman he was working for and then hiding her body in a septic tank, authorities said.
Keoki Hilo, a 34-year old handyman, was sentenced Tuesday, to three consecutive terms of life for the murders of Cynthia Cole, 57, and Cole, 57. According toCBS 12 News.
Demich was declared by a judge to be guilty of charges including first-degree murder, burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault or battery, sexual battery with great force, grand theft and grand theft of a motor vehicle,Treasure Coast Newspapers reports.
Demich was sentenced within minutes of his guilty plea to Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer’s court. He will serve life sentences on the first three charges. He was sentenced to lesser time on the other charges.
CBS 12 News reported that the prosecutors renounced seeking the death penalty after he pleaded guilty.
Demich was working as a handyman for Cole when he hid in her shower and waited for her to return home before he attacked her. He drowned her in the bathtub, and then abused her sexually before submerging her in a septic tanks. According to police.
Sheriff William Snyder stated that security footage showed Demich leaving Cole’s car on the night she disappeared. According to WPTV. Authorities said that Cole and Demich had been friends for many years. Demich was Cole’s regular handyman.
After hours of excavation, Cole’s body was found on March 5 in a septic tank four feet underground, officials said.
“I will never understand how you do this to someone who you call a second mother,” Cole’s daughter Ashley Bevensee said to Demich.
“It has broken our family and, after we lost our father nine year ago, if it ever happens, neither of them would be there to witness it,” Bevensee said to the court. Treasure Coast Newspapers reported.