(Jackson, Mn.)– A Minnesota judge has sentenced a man to 44 years in prison in the kidnapping and killing of a northwest Iowa teenager in 1997.
A Jackson county jury in January convicted Juan Humberto Castillo-Alvarez of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and felony kidnapping.
Castillo-Alvarez was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison on the murder charge and four years for kidnapping.
Prosecutors say members of a gang kidnapped Gregory “Sky” Erickson in Spencer and took him to an abandoned farm house near Petersburg, Minnesota where Erickson was tortured and eventually killed over a drug debt.
Castillo-Alvarez fled to Mexico. He was eventually extradited to Iowa and convicted in 2008. The Iowa Court of Appeals reversed the conviction, saying he was denied a speedy trial. He was sent to Minnesota to face charges in Erickson’s death.
