Indiana Woman Was Stabbed 105 Times by Ex After Chilling Text: 'If I Can’t Have You, Nobody Can'
An Indiana man has been sentenced to prison for stabbing his ex-girlfriend 105 times in what a judge called “an act of hate, an act of savagery.”
On Wednesday, Marshun Lloyd received a 65-year sentence — 55 years behind bars and 10 years suspended — for the March 2019 murder of ex-girlfriend Ashley Starr, the South Bend Tribune, WNDU and WFFT report.
The sentencing comes months after Lloyd pleaded guilty to the 30-year-old’s murder last November.
Starr was found stabbed to death in her home by her sister on March 10 after she did not report to work. The front door of her home was open and the floor was covered in blood, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Tribune.
Before Starr’s death, Lloyd had sent the mother-of-three a series of threatening text messages, said prosecutors, who read some aloud in court.
“If I can’t have you, nobody can,” one text said.
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At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Starr’s mother, Christine Dotson, testified that Starr’s three children were “not doing well.”
“Everybody asks me how they’re doing, they’re not doing well,” Dotson said. “I know they have sleepless nights, but they’re not talking to me.”
Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hurly said Lloyd made “a choice, not just to kill, but to kill in the most violent manner you could possibly do so,” the Tribune reports.
Starr worked as a dietician and was close with her family, who attended the sentencing wearing in purple shirts in her honor.
WNDU reports that St. Joseph County Deputy Prosecutor Chris Fronk said he was “grateful to be able to solve this via plea, spare the family a trial, because obviously, as you heard in the court, the trial would have dwelled in-depth on some very difficult and gruesome issues.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
