Wednesday May 21, 1958
Wednesday May 21, 1958
O'Kasick Hears
Up to 70 Years
Added to Term
James O'Kasick was sentenced to up to 70 years for third degree murder and kidnapping Tuesday in Anoka county district court.
Judge Carl W. Gustafson imposed a pair of sentences for the kidnap-slaying Sept. 14 of Eugene Lindgren rural Anoka painting contractor. The murder conviction carried a 7-to-30-year penalty; the kidnapping, to which O'Kasick pleaded guilty yesterday had a 40-year sentence.
O'Kasick, 21, already is serving a life term for the Aug. 17 murder of Minneapolis Patrolman Robert Fossum and a 40-year term for the abduction of a Bloomington woman the same day.
All of O'Kasick's sentences are to be served consecutively, with the effect of keeping him in jail the rest of his life. He has been in St. Cloud reformatory since shortly after his first convictions last November.
The Lindgren murder conviction came last week, after a trial in which O'Kasick contended Lindgren was killed by a highway patrolman�s gun during a gun battle.
O'Kasick's brothers, Roger, 26, and Ronald, 24, were killed in the Anoka battle.