MORGANTOWN – The woman who murdered a 67-year-old man with his own gun after he found her burglarizing it was sentenced on Tuesday.
Elizabeth Ann Chinn, 34, of Ohio, was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, grand larceny and two counts of conspiracy by a jury in January. The jury voted to not give Chinn mercy on the murder conviction – meaning she will never be eligible for parole.
Judge Phillip Gaujot acknowledged that life hasn’t been easy for Chinn, who was sexually abused as a child and has struggled with addiction from a young age – even struggling with addiction when she killed Timothy Pahl at his Stewartstown Road home on April 22, 2018.
Gaujot said Chinn’s dramatic life, addictions, lack of education and criminal history were all indicators she would be standing before him on some kind of criminal charges.
“But you stand before me on the charge of first-degree murder which the law requires that I sentence you to a life of imprisonment without any chance of parole and that is my ruling,” Gaujot said.
He also sentenced Chinn to the statutory sentence of one-15 years in prison for burglary, one-10 years for grand larceny and one-five years for each count of conspiracy. Those sentences will run concurrent with the life sentence for murder.
A motion by defense attorneys Ryan Shreve and Scott Shough contesting the weight of the evidence presented at trial was denied by Gaujot.
Chinn did not speak to the court.
