Man pleads guilty in death of 3-year-old Indiana boy
BLUFFTON, Ind. - A northeastern Indiana man has pleaded guilty to a murder charge in the death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son whose badly burned body was found in a wooded area.
Zachary Barnes, 31, of Bluffton made the guilty plea Wednesday in connection with the January death of Owen Collins. The Wells County prosecutor says Barnes is to be sentenced Aug. 6 to 50 years in prison under terms of a plea agreement.
Authorities say Owen died while Barnes, the child's mother and a teenager smoked methamphetamine at the mother's Bluffton home. A coroner ruled the child died from blunt force trauma.
Authorities say the boy's body was put into a cardboard box, driven to a rural area and burned.
Owen's mother, 21-year-old Breanna Arnold, and the teenager also face charges in his death.