Hoffman pleads guilty, gets life sentence

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Matthew Hoffman pleaded guilty in a Knox County, Ohio, Thursday to the slaying and dismemberment a mother and child and their family friend.

Knox County Common Pleas Judge Otho Eyster sentenced Hoffman to concurrent terms of life in prison with no chance for parole, The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday.

On Nov. 10 Hoffman, a 30-year-old unemployed tree trimmer, stabbed Tina Herrmann, 32; her son Kody Maynard, 11; and family friend Stephanie Sprang, 41, inside Herrmann's Apple Valley home and then dismembered the bodies, the newspaper said. He bagged the remains and hid them in the hollow of a beech tree northwest of Mount Vernon.

Hoffman led police to the remains Nov. 18 in order to avoid the death penalty, Sprang's sister, Sherry Baxter, said in court.

A 13-year-old girl was found bound, gagged and alive in Hoffman's basement Nov. 14.

"This has changed my whole life and my family's life, too," the girl said in a statement read by Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher. "This is so sickening, Matthew, to know you even had the guts to do this to a family."

Hoffman was indicted Monday by a Knox County grand jury and charged with three counts of aggravated murder, rape and aggravated burglary.