Olathe man gets 70 years for murder of estranged girlfriend
A 33-year-old Olathe man was sentenced Thursday to more than 70 years in prison for the strangulation and beating death of an estranged girlfriend who had obtained a protection order against him.
Derek Deon Owens had been found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder, rape, aggravated sodomy and three counts of violating the protection order.
Owens killed his former girlfriend, 25-year-old Laura K. Coltrane, on the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2011, in her apartment in the 600 block of South Lakehurst Drive in Olathe. Court records say she died of strangulation after being beaten and kicked. She had seven broken ribs and bleeding in her brain.
Records show Owens had also raped and beaten Coltrane the previous month, shortly after being released from jail for domestic violence. While in jail, Owens made 225 phone calls to Coltrane and threatened her.
Coltrane was a radiologic technologist from Humboldt, Kan.
| Matt Campbell, mcampbell@kcstar.com
This story was originally published July 10, 2014 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Olathe man gets 70 years for murder of estranged girlfriend."