A Newton County man who pleaded guilty to killing a 19-year-old South Dakota woman who was last seen in Atlanta in 2016 will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jonathan Alexander Warren, 34, of Porterdale, pleaded guilty Wednesday to multiple charges in connection with Morgan Bauer’s killing, Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney Randy McGinley announced. Warren is guilty of malice murder, tampering with evidence, concealing the death of another and necrophilia.
He entered a non-negotiated plea and asked the court that parole remain a possibility, but McGinley said the court agreed to a sentence without the option of parole.
“The state argued that life without parole was the appropriate sentence based on the facts of the case,” McGinley said in a statement.
An indictment is still pending against a second defendant in the case, Katelyn Goble, according to McGinley. Because her case has not been decided, the DA’s office could not share further details about the circumstances around Bauer’s death. Goble is charged with murder, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of another.
In July, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers descended on the small town of Porterdale, near Covington in Newton County. Porterdale police said they were looking for evidence related to Bauer’s disappearance on Feb. 26, 2016, from a strip club on Buford Highway in Atlanta.
Bauer had been in Atlanta for less than two weeks after relocating from Aberdeen, South Dakota. Her mother, Sherri Sichmeller, said Bauer had arranged to stay with a man she met online and offered to clean his house and do other chores in lieu of paying rent. The arrangement quickly fell apart and she left the house after a disagreement with her roommates, Sichmeller later said.
In August, more than seven years after Bauer’s disappearance, Warren was arrested in Los Angeles, California, and Goble was arrested in Peoria, Illinois.
Officials have not explained the relationship between Warren, Goble and Bauer or how the two defendants became involved in the case. According to McGinley, those details are not likely to be shared until Goble’s case advances in the courts.
Both Warren and Goble remain booked in the Newton jail.
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