(Spencer)– A mexican man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison in the drug-related slaying of a northwest Iowa teenager.
Juan Humberto Castillo-Alvarez received his sentence Friday in Clay County District Court in Spencer after a judge denied his request for a new trial. Castillo-Alvarez was convicted in January of second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.
He was among 10 people accused of helping to kidnap 15-year-old Gregory “Sky” Erickson from his home in Estherville in 1997. Erickson’s beaten body was found shot in the head at an abandoned farmhouse near Petersburg, Minnesota.
Prosecutors alleged that Castillo-Alvarez headed a drug ring in Estherville and the Erickson was killed because he owed drug money to the gang.
Nine people have already been convicted for the slaying and have received sentences ranging from five years to life in prison. The shooter, Luis Lua, is serving life in prison.
(Story from the Association Press.).
