Jimmy Cole awaits sentencing for two counts of murder.
‘Demon from hell’: Cole sentenced to life for murderA Bowling Green man found guilty of killing his girlfriend and unborn child has been sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 30 years.
Jimmy Cole Jr., 30, was transported from jail Friday to the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman.
He had entered pleas of guilty to three murder charges in November on the morning his trial was to begin.
Cole was a person of interest after Bowling Green police found 23-year-old Alicia Rosa Confer unresponsive in her apartment in the 300 block of North Main Street around 4:20 p.m. on March 30. She was pregnant, according to her obituary, and was stabbed several times.
The stabbing killed both the mother and unborn child, said Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson.
Confer’s parents found her body, Dobson said.
“They were hysterical by the time police arrived. (They) were trying to resuscitate their child who had laid there since 1 or 2 o’clock the morning before,” Dobson said.
The parents had arrived at Confer’s apartment at 4 p.m. to check of her after an unknown man answered her cell phone when they called, he said.
Cole had taken her phone and sold it, Dobson explained.
Confer had three stab wounds, all to the chest area, he said. One passed through the sternum and penetrated her heart; one went through her ribs and penetrated a lung.
The third one was the most devastating, he said, as the knife was plunged in, punctured a lung, pulled partially out and then plunged in again into the heart.
Confer’s family in the courtroom could be heard crying during Dobson’s telling of the facts.
There was a deep laceration on one of her fingers, which was a defensive wound, and abrasions to her nose and temple.
“Alicia did nothing wrong but allow him into her house on a cold night,” Dobson said, and added the infant, named Amor, “will never see the light of day.”
Confer’s mother and two sisters addressed the court.
Lori Cremar called Cole a “homeless bum” who physically and mentally abused her daughter.
“He wore her down to someone I no longer recognized,” she said.
She said the defendant’s new name should be Jimmy “The Coward” Cole as the most work he has ever done was cleaning up her daughter’s murder.
Family members asked for consecutive sentences.
“Our family will never be the same,” said sister Marissa Confer.
Alicia had always dreamed of being a mother and had her whole life ahead of her, she said.
She called Cole’s actions “animalistic and inhumane.”
“It will never be the same without her and there will always be a missing piece,” said youngest sibling Sonya Confer.
She said the most time and care Cole gave her sister was cleaning her corpse.
She called him a “demon from hell.”
Dobson read a letter submitted by Daniel Confer, the victims’ father and grandfather.
Daniel Confer said the only regret Cole had was that he was caught.
“The holidays have been hard this year. Every day is hard, actually,” Dobson read. “We are all hurting so bad after losing Alicia.”
The thought that Cole might be released on parole after 15 years was unimaginable, he read.
Cole was indicted in April for three counts murder, two counts felonious assault and one count tampering with evidence. The tampering charge was dismissed Friday.
The murder charges are for the purposeful death of Confer and her unborn child and well as causing their death by committing the offense of felonious assault.
Each count of murder carried a penalty of life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 15 years, Kuhlman said.
For the purposes of sentences, one murder charge and the assault charges were merged.
Kuhlman imposed two life sentences, to be served consecutively. Cole will have his first opportunity for parole after 30 years.
The defense requested the two murder charges merge for one sentence of life in prison with the chance of parole after 15 years.
The state hasn’t entered any evidence the fetus was viable by legal standards, said defense attorney Scott Coon.
“We have taken the position that viability isn’t the question,” Dobson said.
He said the infant was 20-21 weeks old and was alive and healthy at the time of the stabbing.
Kuhlman denied the request.
“We got everything we were asking for,” Dobson said after the hearing. “(Cole) killed two people and he knew he killed two people. And then he left them.”
Cole has made no comment as to why he did what he did, Dobson said.
He said it was impossible to imagine the parents finding their daughter.
“I would never want to know what horrific vision that would be burned in my head,” he said.
Cole tried to clean up the scene; the mother reported smelling cleaning solution when she entered the apartment, Dobson said.
Law enforcement focused on Cole as a suspect after they found his coat in a garbage can, there was no sign of forced entry, and Confer had been dressed after being stabbed, he said.
Cole has a history of violence, including prior domestic violence convictions, two incidents of fighting while in jail, and threatening a guard, Dobson said.
Cole declined to comment when offered the chance to speak.
Coon asked the court to assign counsel for an appeal.
Cole will be given credit for time served. He was taken back to jail to await transportation to prison.
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