A Florida jury on Friday found a Ukrainian man orphaned as a young boy guilty of first degree murder in the stabbing deaths of the couple who adopted him when he was 14.
A judge sentenced Dima Tower to life in prison for the 2023 murders of Robbie and Jennifer Tower, WWSB reported.
Tower, 24, took the stand in his own defense on Thursday and told the court several times that he “was temporarily insane” when he stabbed his adoptive parents more than 140 times, CrimeOnline reported.
Tower detailed his early life before moving to the U.S., saying he moved in with different relatives in Ukraine, following his mother’s death before he turned 10. He said he lived in an orphanage until the Towers adopted him at 14 and came to Florida without knowing English. By 10th grade, he dropped out of high school and admitted that he did not get along with with Robbie Tower.
Jennifer Tower, he said, told him her husband didn’t want to adopt him at all.
Dima attacked his parents with a steak knife inside the family’s North Port home on August 31, 2023, walking into their bedroom and first stabbing his father. When Jennifer Tower ran for help next door, Tower followed her, forced her back home and stabbed her in the neck 38 times.
The defense pushed for a manslaughter charge and temporary insanity, claiming that Tower’s longstanding trauma impaired his judgment, and that the killings were not premeditated. Police, however, said the defendant attempted to clean up the crime scene before loading his personal items into a vehicle and fleeing.
During a high-speed chase, deputies with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office used stop sticks to get Tower’s car to stop. They apprehended him after he fled on foot into a wooded area.
After the jury’s verdict, Judge Thomas Krug sentenced Tower to two consecutive life terms in prison plus five years for the police chase, according to WWSB.
“You seem to be an evil spirit,” Krug told him.
Read more on Dima Tower’s case here.
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[Featured image: Robbie, Jennifer, and Dima Tower/Facebook]
