Darren Neil Grueber Jr., who allegedly aspired to join a white supremacist gang called the Silent Aryan Warriors, was sentenced Monday to a lengthy prison term for fatally bashing in the head of another man with an 87-pound boulder.
Third District Judge Robin Reese sentenced Grueber, 19, to five years to life in prison for murder and 15 years to life for aggravated kidnapping, both first-degree felonies.
Grueber was convicted of helping several other men kidnap Don Dorton, whom gang members incorrectly suspected of stealing a small amount of methamphetamine. Dorton was beaten, restrained to the point of suffocation with duct tape, wrapped in sheets and blankets, taken to a rural area and was left to die. But police and prosecutors maintain Grueber insisted on dropping the huge rock on Dorton's head.
Despite all, Dorton managed to survive for a time but eventually died an undoubtedly terrifying and painful death.
The judge ordered that Grueber's sentences for the two crimes run consecutively and also run consecutively to another sentence Grueber is serving.