Jury says life for man in Ohio septic tank body case

LOGAN, Ohio - A jury on Thursday recommended a life sentence with no chance of parole for a man convicted of killing his estranged wife, who was found strangled in a septic tank last year.

The Hocking County jury deliberated for about three hours before returning the recommendation for 27-year-old William Inman II, who had faced the possibility of a death sentence.

The jury on Tuesday found Inman guilty of aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in the slaying of 25-year-old Summer Inman. Authorities said she was abducted in Logan on March 22, 2011, then was strangled with a zip tie and dumped in an underground septic tank behind a church in nearby Athens County.

Defense attorney Herman Carson said after the jurors recommended the life sentence for his client that it's "obvious the jury paid close attention to the evidence and what the law is."

"They took their obligation very seriously and, I think, came to an appropriate conclusion based on their previous verdict in the first phase of the trial," he said by telephone.

Separate trials are scheduled for later this year for William Inman's parents, who also are charged in the death and have pleaded not guilty.

Inman's mother faces 15 years to life if convicted of murder. His father faces a possible death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder.

Witnesses who said they were out walking in Logan the night of March 22, 2011, testified that they heard screaming and the sound of a stun gun from an alley next to a bank where Summer Inman worked as an after-hours cleaning woman.

Witnesses also said they saw two men in dark clothing standing and a woman on the ground. One witness said the men threw the woman into the back seat of a car and the car took off.

Summer Inman had filed for divorce in June 2010 after six years of marriage, seeking custody of the couple's three small children and accusing her husband of being cruel and neglectful, according to court records.

Acquaintances had said she was attempting to start a new life with her children away from her controlling husband and his father when she was killed.