Indiana man convicted of killing 26-year-old girlfriend and her 3 young kids
05/19/2022 1:55 pm PDT
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (TCD) -- A jury found a 22-year-old man guilty this week of killing his girlfriend and her three young children in 2021.
According to WANE-TV, Cohen Hancz-Barron was convicted of four counts of murder for the deaths of Sarah Zent, 26, Carter Zent, 5, Ashton Zent, 3, and Aubree Zent, 2. On Thursday, May 19, the jury sided with the prosecutors and agreed to the enhancement of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hancz-Barron reportedly stabbed all four victims to death and strangled Sarah.
On June 2, 2021, at 10:45 a.m., Fort Wayne Police Department officers were called to the 2900 block of Gay Street for an "unknown problem." When they arrived, they found Sarah Zent and her three children dead. Police identified Hancz-Barron as the suspect and were eventually able to apprehend him in Lafayette, Indiana.
WANE reports the pathologist testified during the trial that the three children were stabbed on the sides of their necks and then in their sides close to their livers. The knife Hancz-Barron used was reportedly 2 to 3 inches long and contained both a dull side and sharp side.
In August, the Allen County prosecutor filed for the possibility of four life sentences without parole rather than the death penalty because Zent’s family wanted Hancz-Barron to "experience the entire prison life," according to WPTA-TV.
MORE:
- Jury finds man guilty of killing 4, now ponders life without parole sentence - WANE
- Indiana police arrest suspect in 'gruesome' quadruple homicide, 6/9/2021 - TCD
- Homicide Investigation - Fort Wayne Police Department
- Updated- FWPD Cohen Bennett Hancz-Barron Arrested - Fort Wayne Police Department
- Pathologist: Children, mother stabbed in the neck and liver - WANE
- Prosecutor files for life without parole in murder of mother and three kids, 8/6/2021 - WPTA