Overdose Victim Was Strangled With Jumper Cables and Dumped Over Embankment, Police Say

Associated Press
Updated
Three pleaded guilty to strangling a man with jumper cables and dumping him

(SCRANTON, Pa.) — Three people who pleaded guilty in the death of a man strangled with a pair of jumper cables and dumped over an embankment after an apparent overdose are headed to prison.

Authorities say 20-year-old Preston Layfield and 23-year-old Tyler Mirabelli were sentenced Wednesday to 20 to 40 years in prison. The third defendant, 21-year-old Amanda Wayda, was sentenced to 15 to 40 years.

Layfield pleaded guilty in August to third-degree murder, while Mirabelli and Wayda each pleaded guilty to third-degree murder as an accomplice.

Authorities say the three drove 21-year-old Joshua Rose to Susquehanna County in August 2016 after the apparent overdose, and passed by a hospital. Rose was then strangled and his body was dumped. The coroner ruled his death homicide by asphyxiation.