A man accused of killing a 17-year-old runaway then cutting off her tattoos and removing her teeth to prevent authorities from identifying her body was sentenced today to 20 to 50 years in prison.
District Court Judge David Barker sentenced Gabriel Yates, 37, in the 2008 slaying of Nichole Elizabeth Yegge after hearing tearful statements from the victim’s mother and sister.
Yates agreed to plea guilty to first-degree murder on Aug. 1, avoiding a possible death-penalty trial. He had been facing five other charges, including kidnapping.
Authorities said Yates, then 31, strangled Yegge then mutilated her body to prevent it from being identified. The body was found Aug. 2, 2008, just six days before Yegge’s 18th birthday, in a shallow desert grave south of the Snow Mountain Paiute Indian Reservation.
“What Nicole had to endure the last moments of her life was horrific,” Stephanie Yegge, the victim’s mother, said as she read from a prepared statement. “My beautiful daughter was strangled, she was beaten, her body was mutilated, and she was buried in a hockey bag in the hottest part of the desert.”
Stephanie Yegge said she had hoped for a life sentence without the possibility of parole for Yates, whom she called a predator and liar.
Anne Osburn
Barker said the six years Yates has been in jail will be credited toward his sentence, meaning he could be eligible for parole in 14 years.
Yates and Anne Osburn, then 21, were charged in the slaying of the teen authorities allege they pimped as a prostitute. Osburn’s case is pending.
Yates took sole responsibility for Yegge’s death during his sentencing.
“I’d like the court to know that Ms. Osburn did not participate in the murder. I did that by myself,” he told the judge.
Osburn, now 27, is next scheduled to appear in court Nov. 10. She faces charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree kidnapping.
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