Men sentenced for killing Minnesota farmer

Published 9:48 am Monday, May 9, 2016

CHASKA — Two men will each serve 37 years in prison for fatally beating a 90-year-old man in his Carver County farm home last year.

Sentencing was held Friday for 36-year-old Reinol Godines Vergara of Richfield and 31-year-old Edson Celin-Dominguez Benitez of Glencoe.

The two were charged with second-degree murder after the body of Earl Olander was found in his ransacked farmhouse in April 2015. Authorities said Olander’s hands were bound with duct tape and that the killers covered his head with a blanket and beat him with a shotgun.

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Authorities said Benitez and Vergara had painted Olander’s house, and then returned to rob him.

According to a press release, the two men must serve at least 25 years before they’re eligible for parole.