Alex Shipp Murder Update: Walter Logan, Ind. man charged with killing friend, sentenced to 28 years
(CBS/AP) KOKOMO, Ind. - An Indiana man who pleaded guilty to killing a friend and stuffing his body inside an unplugged freezer has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Walter Logan was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to reckless homicide in the 2012 death of 29-year-old Alex Shipp.
Howard Circuit Court Judge Lynn Murray said the 53-year-old Logan showed "depraved indifference toward the victim" and his relatives by hiding Shipp's body in an unplugged freezer in his Kokomo home.
The Kokomo Tribune reports that Murray ordered Logan to pay more than $1,800 in restitution for Shipp's funeral expenses.
Court documents say Logan told investigators that he and Shipp had known each other for about two years and had a sexual relationship. He said that one night about four weeks earlier, the men got drunk, did drugs and had sex. Afterward, Logan said Shipp became belligerent and wanted to fight, but Logan bound Shipp's hands and feet and placed duct tape over his nose and mouth.Logan told investigators he tried to kill himself with pills and wrote a suicide note, but he fell asleep before he could finish writing it.
When Logan woke up, Shipp appeared to be dead. Logan removed the tape from Shipp's face before going back to sleep, court documents say.
After he awoke again, Logan allegedly waited about six hours and then carried Shipp's body to the basement, where he stuffed it inside the freezer, documents say. When police came to Logan's home, documents say, he led them through the stinking house to the freezer.
Investigators said even if Logan hadn't intended to kill Shipp, he should have realized that sealing his mouth and nose so he couldn't breathe would cause his death.