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A Delaware County judge sentenced a Muncie man to decades in prison Monday following the man’s February murder conviction for strangling a woman in 2020.
Delaware Circuit Court Judge Douglass Mawhorr sentenced David Bond, 45, to 84 years in prison for the murder of Ashley Marie Bennett.
According to the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office, a Delaware County jury deliberated in February for approximately four hours before convicting Bond of murder, resisting law enforcement and possession of methamphetamine.
After the verdicts were returned, Bond admitted to being a habitual offender because he had previously been convicted of at least two felony convictions for robbery and criminal confinement.
After the sentenced was returned, Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman issued a released statement.
“Over the course of the past few years we have taken violent felons who habitually commit crime off the street one by one and we will continue to do so. David Bond is one of those violent offenders,” Hoffman said.
The Muncie Star Press reported that at the sentencing hearing, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig said the slaying was the most disturbing, “as far as the brutality and complete disregard of human life,” that he had dealt with in 16 years as a prosecutor.
Craig noted Bond had tried to stage the slaying scene to make it appear Bennett had died as a result of a drug overdose.
He also referred to Bond’s record — now consisting of 12 felony and 11 misdemeanor convictions — and said the Muncie man had “demonstrated a pattern of targeting women.”
A police affidavit stated that Bennett was found deceased at her apartment on Aug. 3, 2020. An autopsy found Bennett had suffered an injury to her neck area consistent with strangulation.
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