Man sentenced to back-to-back life terms for 2020 killings of girlfriend and her friend in Iowa home
A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to back-to-back life sentences for fatally shooting his girlfriend and her friend a few years ago.
Matthew Dee Buford III offered no explanation for the February 2020 double homicide at Thursday's sentencing hearing, despite pleas for answers from the families of his girlfriend, 42-year-old Tamica Allison, and the second victim, 41-year-old Andrea Anderson, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported.
"If you had any ounce of human decency left, I would just ask you, let us know why," said Anderson's son, Mohammed Calhoun.
Prosecutors offered little in the way of motive at last month's trial. It ended with jurors finding Buford guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and flight to avoid prosecution.
Authorities said the three had been drinking at Buford and Allison's home. Allison's teenage daughter testified that she was in her bedroom upstairs when she heard her mother say, "What are you going to do, shoot me in the face? I don't care, I'm not scared."
Two gunshots followed, and when the daughter went downstairs she saw the two bodies on the floor and Buford holding a gun. Buford dropped off the daughter and her younger brother at other homes, and then left the state.
He surrendered a few days later in Peoria, Illinois.