Judge hands down two life sentences plus to killer of Carthage couple

Jasper County Judge Gayle Crane sentenced Darren Winans, 23, Jasper, to two life sentences Wednesday for the brutal 2008 murders of Bob and Ellen Sheldon, owners of the Old Cabin Shop in Carthage.

Winans also received 20 year sentences on two armed criminal action charges and 15 years for burglary, with those sentences to run consecutively with the life sentences.

Winans pleaded guilty Feb. 28 to the crimes in a plea deal that kept him from facing the death penalty. His co-defendant, Matthew Laurin, Springfield, pleaded guilty earlier and then committed suicide in the Jasper County Jail.