ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. (TCN) — A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a 67-year-old business owner last year.
In May 2025, Edward Koza was found tied up, with his mouth taped shut, inside his truck outside the garden center he owned. The vehicle was set on fire with gasoline and was in flames when authorities arrived on scene.
Investigators learned Koza had been robbed and then killed with a rock inside the store. His cause of death was ruled to be blunt force trauma. Surveillance footage identified Jonah Poole and Kylee Alyssa Dakes, both 18, as suspects. Poole had worked briefly for Koza at the garden center a year prior to killing him.
Law & Crime reports that in the weeks before he was killed, Koza had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from his home. Another employee at the center later told investigators that Koza suspected Poole was responsible for stealing the money.
In addition to surveillance footage, investigators obtained a cellphone video Poole had recorded of himself pouring gas into Koza’s truck and lighting paper towels hanging from the side windows on fire. Law & Crime reports investigators also reviewed Snapchat messages that Poole and Dakes exchanged where Poole wrote, “It went so well.”
Both Poole and Dakes were arrested and charged on May 31, 2025, with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, arson, and conspiracy to commit first- and second-degree murder.
According to Law & Crime, Poole pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March, and on June 26, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The couple was originally slated to be tried together but since Poole took a plea deal, Dakes will go on trial separately. She pleaded not guilty and her trial is scheduled for December.
At his sentencing, Poole said, “I think I deserve whatever I get. … I hope God can forgive me, because I don’t think I deserve it from anyone else,” Law & Crime reports.
In addition to his life sentence, he is required to forfeit $215,000 stolen from Koza, as well as a truck he had purchased for $15,000 using the stolen money.
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