After pleading guilty to manslaughter on Monday, Kevin Koehler was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Koehler, 50, admitted to choking Mary Anne May to death in September 2013.
“I was just going into her room to scare her, but it was me who ended up scared because of the outcome,” he said.
The two were living together in an apartment on Margaret Avenue, but were not romantically involved.
Court documents show that the building was known to police for connections to drugs, prostitution and other crime – but May lived there only out of financial need, and wasn’t known to be connected to any criminal elements.
Eventually, Koehler’s girlfriend began living in the apartment as well – something which police believed precipitated the problems between Koehler and May.
May had repeatedly asked her landlord to have the girlfriend removed from the apartment.
On Sept. 18, 2013, according to a police investigator’s report, May came home to find Koehler and his girlfriend drinking and playing loud music.
She locked herself in her room, and called and texted the landlord repeatedly.
The landlord suggested she contact police, although there is no record of that happening.
Police believe it was shortly after this that Koehler killed May – then wrapped her body in blankets, loaded her into a child’s bike trailer and attempted to dispose of the remains.
Investigators looking into May’s death spoke with several people who claimed Koehler boasted about killing May, often while using alcohol or drugs.
Outside court, May’s boyfriend said he had hoped to see a harsher sentence – particularly given Koehler’s 1985 guilty plea for criminal negligence causing death in connection with a crash that killed three people near Walkerton.
“We’ll have to live with it, and just keep Mary in our hearts and our memories,” Richard Watkins said.
Because of credit for time already served, Koehler has less than 11 years of his sentence yet to be completed.
