FARGO, N.D. — A North Dakota man convicted of killing a 14-year-old girl in 2021 was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Arthur Prince Kollie, 23, of Fargo, was found guilty of murder last month after fatally beating Jupiter Paulsen on June 4, 2021, in the parking lot of a Party City retail store, KVLY-TV reported.
Paulsen was skateboarding from her father’s home to her mother’s residence in Fargo when Kollie followed her into an alley and began beating her, prosecutors said.
23-year-old Arthur Kollie will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. https://t.co/JSfWBayrws
— KMOT (@KMOT_TV) October 28, 2022
The girl was found lying on the ground by a City of Fargo garbage truck driver, with Kollie kneeling over her in the Party City parking lot, according to KVLY.
Prosecutors said that Kollie stabbed and strangled the girl to death, KVRR-TV reported. Kollie allegedly stabbed, kicked and strangled Paulsen over a 30-minute period, the Grand Forks Herald reported. The girl was stabbed 25 times but the wounds were not fatal. However, the strangulation resulted in a lack of oxygen to her brain.
Paulsen was declared brain dead and her family took her off life support, according to the newspaper. She died June 13, 2021.
Jurors deliberated for approximately two hours on Sept. 15 before finding Kollie guilty of felony counts of murder, robbery and aggravated assault, the Herald reported.
“He took a beautiful out of this world and he deserves to pay with his life, but seeing as we don’t’ have the death penalty here, life without parole, I believe, is just,” Antonia Johnson, Paulsen’s mother, said after the sentence was announced.
Eric Baumann, Kollie’s defense attorney, asked for the possibility of parole, KFVY reported.
“Mr. Kollie is a very young man, he’s only 23 years old and he does have the capacity for change,” Baumann said.
In a statement to the court, Kollie apologized to Paulsen’s family but maintained his innocence, according to the television station.
He plans to appeal the sentence.
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