Denver, CO- A jury has found a convicted child killer guilty of first-degree murder, determining he pummeled his 19-year-old wife with a bat and buried her alive in 1996. Michael J. Medina was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the death of Kimberly Kimmy Greene-Medina following his conviction Friday afternoon in Arapahoe County District Court. Medina is already serving a 48-year prison term for killing his 16-month-old son Degan Medina, whose body was discovered near a waste lagoon in Monte Vista in 2005. Its a lesson for families - dont ever give up, said deputy district attorney Cara Morlan. Deputy District Attorney John Kellner, who works in District Attorney George Brauchlers newly formed cold case unit, said the life sentence is consecutive to the 48-year sentence. Medina had long been a suspect in the disappearance of Greene-Medina, whose body has never been found. The killer originally claimed Greene-Medina went missing while walking to a store for cigarettes with people he didnt know, according to an Alamosa County Sheriffs Office report. But in 2005, Medina confessed to killing Greene-Medina to his second wife Becky Garel, according to court records. At the time, he was accusing Garel of being unfaithful to him and threatening to kill his son Degan Medina to make her suffer. Medina also described killing Medina to a fellow prison inmate, who testified at his trial. The inmate also testified that Medina tried to hire him to kill Garel, Kellner said. Charges were not brought until March 2012. Proving the 1996 murder case came with some unique challenges. Its not just the body that was missing; its also the complete lack of a crime scene as well, Kellner said. He said the Safe Streets Task Force including Aurora police and federal agents from the FBI, the U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security were instrumental in proving that Greene-Medina wasnt just missing but had been murdered. Morlan said Greene-Medina was very close to her family and adored her two daughters, ages 2 and 3. She would have never walked away from them, she said. Medina had a paper route in rural Arapahoe County and drove by many fields. He allegedly told Garel that after he had learned that Kimberly had an affair with a co-worker, he went into one of the fields and dug a deep hole, according to Alamosa records. He was wearing military camouflage. It was snowing and muddy when he drove his wife and two daughters in his truck to the field after she got home that day. Kimberly was wearing a Mickey Mouse jacket with a hood. In the field, Medina said he tied the laces of her hood and they began to talk. Suddenly, he stepped back, pulled out a bat hidden under his coat, told her You should have never cheated on me and swung the bat into her head. After telling Garel how he killed his wife, he grabbed Degan and said he would take him away from her forever, then kill himself. He showed her a box of box-cutter blades and said he would slit Degans throat or stab him. denverpost/breakingnews/ci_24537766/colorado-man-guilty-murder-after-burying-his-wife -J
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 17:34:19 +0000
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