Rebecca Auborn, an Ohio sex worker who pleaded guilty to murder charges in a series of fatal fentanyl overdoses in 2023, was sentenced Thursday to four consecutive life terms in prison, officials said.
Auborn, 35, will be eligible for parole after 60 years, the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's office said in a news release. A spokeswoman for the office said prosecutors had sought the sentence handed down by Franklin County Judge Karen Phipps.
“My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one — I pray that this measure of justice brings them closure and peace,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement.
In court, Auborn's attorney said she did not mean to kill the men.
She had been trafficked and subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse for years, said the lawyer, Mark Hunt, and she admitted drugging the men and stealing their things after they passed out.
"That doesn't excuse her crimes," he said. "She pled guilty. She's taken the blame."
Auborn pleaded guilty in December to four counts of murder, one count of felonious assault and one count of theft. In addition to the crimes linked to the four deaths, she had also been charged with aggravated robbery and felonious assault in connection with the attempted overdose of a fifth person.
"Dear Rebecca, my father would have never hurt you," the daughter of one of the victims, Wayne Akin, wrote in a victim impact statement provided to NBC News. "He wasn't like any man you might have encountered. He was kind. He was gentle. He was loving. He was awkward and so tender.
"No matter how much torment this has caused, I want you to know that I couldn't bring myself to hate you and I never will," the statement continued.
Yost's office described the killings as a "serial murder" case.
Authorities have said Auborn fatally drugged and robbed four customers in the Columbus area from Jan. 15 to June 17, 2023. The victims were identified as Akin, 64; Robert Snoke, 54; Joseph Crumpler, 30; and Guy Renda Jr., 42.
Akin’s daughter, Christyn Akin-Crockett, has said it’s unclear whether her father was actually a customer of Auborn’s.
Akin-Crockett previously said authorities initially appeared to show little interest in pursuing her father's death in April 2023 as suspicious, even though, she said, she tried to provide police with information she received from a tipster about a woman who the tipster said in a text message was named “becka” who was killing people.
Akin-Crockett said she eventually provided that information to a Columbus police detective after a fourth person died in June of that year. Auborn was later indicted in the four killings and the robbery of the fifth person.
A spokesperson for the Columbus Division of Police previously said it was reviewing the matter. The department has not responded to additional requests for comment.
