Elyria man sent to prison for 2017 fatal stabbing

An Elyria man who beat and stabbed his ex to death more than five years ago was sentenced Monday to 17 ½ years in prison before he will be eligible for parole. Roy Owens Jr., 61, pleaded guilty to murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse in November. Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski handed down the sentence on the murder, tampering and abuse of a corpse charges. The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office asked for life in prison with the possibility of parole only after 19 years. Owens' attorney, Anthony Rich, sought a minimum of 15 years in prison before his client can seek parole. Betleski granted Owens credit for nearly 2,000 days served in jail awaiting trial, through changes in his attorneys, in prosecutors, during the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple mental health evaluations. Elyria police and county prosecutors said Owens killed 56-year-old Linnea Satterfield by stabbing her first with a screwdriver, then with a butcher knife on July 17, 2017. Authorities only found her body in the trunk of his car after he drove it into a ditch in Darke County, approximately 150 miles southwest of Elyria. In his comments to the court Monday, Owens claimed he overreacted when he got home from work that day after he learned Satterfield cheated on him and murdered her in a rage. The Satterfield family rejected that claim: Linnea Satterfield had already broken up with Owens, moved out of the house they shared, and bought another house when he killed the beloved mother and grandmother. Defendant speaks In an eight-minute-long statement he read in court, Owens cried and stammered as he said he lives with "a weight of regret that never leaves my shoulders" and "an agony of guilt that never leaves my soul." He said he feels sorrow, regret and remorse, but none of that is enough to make up for what he said should never have happened. How "in a moment of passion and rage I lost control of myself and took the life of someone I loved and cared for," he said. Owens also asked Satterfield's family and God for forgiveness. Owens's former and current attorneys and supporters have long argued that his behavior was the result of a 25-year-old head injury. It is "undisputed medical fact" Owens had a traumatic brain injury, an aneurysm, and episodes of strange or impulsive behavior in the past 25 years, Rich said. An underlying frontal lobe injury makes him incapable of controlling his emotions, Rich said. Even a minimum 15-year prison term is "potentially a death sentence" for his client, he said. "I do not know if he's the terror he's made out to be," Rich said. "He shouldn't be treated like a person of completely sound mind." Nadine Alloway said she saw a change in her brother from before his head injury to after. He always wanted to please, to love and be loved, but it was "never enough," Alloway told Betleski. She also said Owens has a strong faith in God and "would give you the shirt off his back." Ron Moore, a friend of Owens' for 30 years, a co-worker and fellow churchgoer, said Owens is "a very good guy" and that the murder "wasn't planned." Church elder Jerry Rader said Owens "sincerely loves the Lord," and deserves to be loved and forgiven even as he is judged by the court. He asked the Satterfield and Conley family for mercy. If Owens could relive it, "he would never do it again," Rader told Betleski. Owens thanked his friends for showing up in court to support him, but teared up as he wondered aloud to the judge "how they can stand me." 'Thou shalt not kill' Satterfield's daughter, Shawna Conley, wept as she described how her mother's murder changed her family's life. The two women were "incredibly close," spending hours together on the phone, Conley said. Satterfield "was an amazing mother, grandmother and friend to everyone. Everyone who had the privilege of knowing her was incredibly lucky," Conley read from her victim impact statement, through tears and occasional sobs. "Roy Owens didn't just kill my mother: He killed a piece of me that day," Conley said. Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Matt Kern scoffed at the claim that Owens' head injury somehow explained his behavior. Owens' first wife reported he was "repeatedly violent" during their 10-year marriage from 1988 to 1998. Owens also assaulted an ex in Missouri in 2002 and spent two years in prison there for that crime, according to courtroom testimony and Chronicle-Telegram archives. "It's just who Mr. Owens is," Kern told Betleski, and an issue than can only be addressed "through the incapacitation of this defendant in prison." Owens hasn't snapped while sitting in the Darke and Lorain County jail for the last 1,973 days surrounded by other offenders picking on him, Kern said. That points to Owens having impulse control, the prosecutor said. So does hiding Satterfield's cellphone in a neighbor's dryer vent so that it would confuse police investigators as to her location. "Linnea Satterfield should not be dead by his hands," Kern said of Owens. "I understood his statement today to be that it was her fault that he killed her because she was unfaithful to him. That is not an individual who has racked his conscience to understand godly intent." Kern reminded the court that "one of the Ten Commandments is 'Thou shalt not kill.'" "I would suggest to you that Mr. Owens does not get to quote scripture as an expression of his remorse when he cannot follow one of the ten most basic rules for living," Kern said, his voice rising. As for those who asked for mercy, Kern told Betelski to show Owens "the mercy he showed Linnea Satterfield," whose death took several minutes. Background Satterfield was reported missing by her sister the day she died. She had broken up with Owens a week before, and the Satterfield family told The Chronicle-Telegram at the time that Owens was controlling, emotionally abusive, addicted to writing sermons and to watching pornography. Owens and Satterfield were survivalist "preppers" who stocked canned goods, cash and supplies, and police found guns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition in lockers at Owens' workplace in North Ridgeville. Neighbors said the couple fought frequently. When officers searched Owens' house on Charles Court after Satterfield went missing, they found blood and evidence of a struggle. Satterfield's car was found at her house. On July 20, 2017, Darke County sheriff's deputies responded to a traffic crash near Greenville, north of Dayton, to find Owens in his underwear standing outside his 2001 Buick LeSabre with a dull knife that he held to both his wrist and throat. He was taken into custody without incident, and also made a failed attempt to kill himself in the Darke County Jail following his arrest, Elyria police said at the time. Satterfield's decomposing body was found in the trunk of the car. Conley said Monday that Darke County detectives told her not to view her mother's body one last time due to the condition they found it in. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.