FOX 13 Tampa Bay reporter Kylie Jones returned to a case she’s been tracking for years with a blunt update: the woman convicted of killing her own sister in Hillsborough County has now been sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison.
The defendant, 72-year-old Debra Patton, learned her fate in court after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of her sister, Karen Pais, a Carrollwood woman whose disappearance in 2021 ended in a grim discovery in her own backyard.
Jones, speaking from the courtroom scene, said this wasn’t just another sentencing hearing for the people who loved Karen – it was the end of a long, exhausting wait that included years of delays, hearings, and a trial that finally brought the case to a conclusion…