WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A Rhode Island man has been sentenced to up to 35 years in prison for killing an autistic Massachusetts man in a motel four years ago and leaving the body in a trash container.
Twenty-three-year-old James Howze, of Providence, was sentenced Monday in Worcester Superior Court after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and related crimes in the March 2012 death of 19-year-old Joseph Webster.
Prosecutors say Howze and Lara Cori befriended Webster, who was mildly autistic and had diabetes, then killed him in a Northborough motel. His body was found in a trash container in Providence. The suspects were eventually tracked to New York. Prosecutors say Howze and Cori also tried to sell Webster’s car.
Cori previously pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years.
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