The homeless man who stabbed to death a star Iowa State golfer in September has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (via the Des Moines Register).
Collin Richards, 22, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in his fatal stabbing of Celia Barquin Arozamena on Sept. 17 at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames, Iowa, while she was golfing.
District Judge Bethany Currie handed down the sentence Friday at the Story County Justice Center in Nevada.
A native of Puente San Miguel, Spain, Arozamena was a civil engineering student who was 22 when she was killed. She also was among the most accomplished golfers in Iowa State history as the 2018 Big 12 Conference women's golf champion and Iowa State Female Athlete of the Year.
In a handwritten letter filed in court earlier this month, Richards — who had a history of mental illness and drug addiction and was living at a homeless camp at the time of Barquin Arozamena's murder — promised to work to become a better person.
“I want to show remorse for stripping a life from society,” Richards wrote the court. “I want the family and you to know I’m sorry.”
Police say Richards told another man at the camp that he had "an urge to rape and kill a woman" the day before Arozamena was murdered.
