DES MOINES, Iowa (TCN) — A 61-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for beating his girlfriend with a wooden board, as well as punching and kicking her, causing her death.
The Polk County Attorney’s Office announced Aug. 20 that Derrick Earnest received a sentence of life in prison without parole. Earnest will also have to pay $150,000 in restitution. A jury previously convicted him in May of first-degree murder for fatally beating his girlfriend, Holly Snowgren.
According to prosecutors, in April 2024, the defendant got into an argument with Snowgren and beat her with a wooden board and punched and kicked her. Surveillance cameras reportedly captured Earnest threatening to kill her, and Snowgren said “Derrick” and “pleaded for him to stop.”…