Life sentence for man who raped and killed stepdaughter
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this May 20, 2015 photo provided by Washington County Sheriff’s Office shows Ernie Chase. Chase was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison for raping and strangling his 17-year-old stepdaughter in Hagerstown, Maryland in 2015. (Washington County Sheriff’s Office via AP). (The Associated Press)
A Maryland judge has sentenced a man to life in prison plus 20 years for raping and killing his 17-year-old stepdaughter.
Thirty-six-year-old Ernie Chase was sentenced Friday in Hagerstown, about 75 miles west of Baltimore. He was convicted in a plea deal in December of first-degree murder and second-degree rape in the 2015 slaying of Melissa Collins.
Collins was reported missing by her mother. Police found her body later that day under a pile of clothes in a bedroom of their Hagerstown home. An autopsy showed she died of strangulation and blunt force injuries.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chase told police he hit Collins for talking back to him, and then strangled her with a cord. He pleaded guilty to murder but entered an Alford plea to the rape charge, acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.