Mitchell given consecutive 50-year sentences

A Bourbon County man was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in the Kansas Department of Corrections for his involvement in a 2021 double murder at the conclusion of a two-day sentencing hearing Thursday.

A two-day sentencing hearing in the case of Dawson James Mitchell, who in November pleaded guilty to two counts of off-grid person felonies of murder in the first degree – premeditated, for the Dec. 21, 2021 death of his mother, Melissa Hays-Mitchell and stepfather Leonard Zimmerman in a residence in the 400 block of Main Street, took place Wednesday and Thursday.

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