News

Actions

Blair man convicted of murder in 1983 was...

Posted at 6:41 PM, Jan 15, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-15 19:41:38-05

There hasn't been a murder in Blair since 1983.  The town now has to re-live the death of beloved 21-year-old Mary Jo Hovendick decades later.

A US Supreme Court decision makes the sentences of the two men responsible unconstitutional.  A judge re-sentenced one of those men Friday.

Dale Nollen has spent 33 years behind bars for the murder of Mary Jo Hovendick.

Nollen who was 17 at the time and Brian Smith who was 16, confessed to hiding in the basement of a Blair donut shop.  When the store closed they robbed and abducted Hovendick, the store's manager at knife point.  The teens then sexually assaulted her before tying her hands behind her back and pushing her car into the river.  Hovendick drowned.

Nollen was sentenced to life in prison, but in 2012 the US Supreme Court ruled that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juveniles convicted of murder.

Recently Nollen's life sentence was vacated and he was re-sentenced Friday.  Hovendick's sister Melinda Kahlandt said it was hard to be in the courtroom Friday.

“It’s just kind of an emotional thing, hard to relive,” said Melinda Kahlandt.

Kahlandt asked that the judge not forget her sister and the brutal way she died.

The Washington County judge re-sentenced Nollen to 90 years to life.  He will get credit for time served, meaning he will be eligible for parole in 12 years.