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A jury is deciding whether to recommend life without parole for two men convicted of killing a Columbia City women

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A jury is deciding, this week, whether to recommend life without parole for two men convicted of killing a Columbia City woman in 2019.

Jurors were reconvened Monday after finding two men guilty of the October 2019 murder of 31-year-old Kimberly Dyer. Donald Owen Jr., 22, and Mario Angulo Jr., 20, were convicted following a two-week joint trial in April.

The jury is tasked with deciding whether to recommend that the men be sent to prison for life, without being eligible for parole. It’s a sentence enhancement levied by prosecutors based on certain aggravating factors.

Those include committing the murder while also committing criminal confinement or while engaged in organized criminal activity. It also includes torturing the victim before death.

As another aggravating factor, Owen is additionally accused of committing the murder while he was on parole following a conviction in another crime.

Jurors have to be convinced that at least one of those aggravating circumstances applies for them to come back with a recommendation for life without parole.

According to the Elkhart Truth, lawyers for the two men tried to offer mitigating circumstances to support an argument that they aren’t beyond rehabilitation.

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