Machete-Killing Homeless Man Gets 40 Years In Prison

CHARLESTON, WV — Charleston homeless man Brian Dakota Thompson was sentenced to the maximum 40 years in prison for killing another homeless man with a machete and throwing his body into a river. Thompson, 23, was sentenced on Wednesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court for second-degree murder, media outlets reported.

The body of Brandon Robinson, 19, was pulled from the Kanawha River in January. Both men lived on the river bank.

Robinson threw snowballs at a tent that Thompson shared with a woman, police said. When Thompson left the tent, Robinson hit him in the head with a tree branch and repeatedly struck Robinson with a machete before stomping on his head.

An autopsy showed Robinson likely was still alive when he was thrown into the river, prosecutors said.

Image via Shutterstock