Trio Sentenced In Farmhouse Slaying In Lyon County

MARSHALL (AP) - A man accused of fatally shooting a couple and setting their farmhouse on fire in southwestern Minnesota has been sentenced to life in prison.

Twenty-one-year-old Derek Hexum earlier pleaded guilty first-degree murder while committing a burglary, arson and burglary. He and two accomplices were sentenced in Lyon County District Court Monday.

Seventy-five-year-old James Hively and his 71-year-old wife, Catherine, were killed in April 2015. Their bodies were found in the charred rubble of their farmhouse in rural Balaton.

Nineteen-year-old Theodore Como has been sentenced to more than 23 years in prison for aiding in the crime. Twenty-two-year-old Kyle Wesselink was sentenced to more than four years in prison for aiding an offender.