After 53 years, the sister of an Akron woman who was stabbed to death and left on the side of the road got to face her sister’s killer Wednesday.

“I can never get my sister back no matter what sentence you receive but at least you won’t be able to destroy any other families,” Sandra Utterback said via Zoom during Gustave Sapharas’ sentencing for the slayings of Karen Bentz, her sister, and another woman in the 1970s. “This has haunted me since I was 14 years old and, although it was heartbreaking to relive, I know Karen is looking down, pleased.”

To Sapharas, Utterback said, "God forgive me, but I hope you burn in hell."

Utterback, who is the only surviving member of her immediate family, urged Summit County Common Pleas Judge Alison Breaux to sentence Sapharas to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Breaux went with this recommendation, sentencing Sapharas to life in prison without parole for 15 years for Bentz’s murder and life without parole for the slaying of Loretta Jean Davis. She ran the sentences consecutively.

“You are not to be released from prison at any time, Mr. Sapharas,” Breaux said.

Sapharas, 78, of Jackson Township, plans to appeal. He chose not to speak during his sentencing at the advice of his attorneys.

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Sapharas was convicted by a jury last month of all five charges he faced, including murder and aggravated murder, for the murders of Bentz, 18, of Akron, in 1970 and Loretta Jean Davis, 20, of Brimfield, in 1975. Both women were stabbed to death, with their bodies dumped along roadsides.

Prosecutors said Gustave Sapharas terrorized women for 20 years, luring them into his car and choking or threatening them with a knife if they didn’t do his sexual bidding. They said Bentz and Davis refused to comply and Sapharas stabbed them.

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Defense attorneys, though, argued that Sapharas kidnapped and raped several women but that didn’t mean he was also a murderer.

Prosecutor calls Sapharas a ‘scourge on our community’

Assistant Prosecutor Brian LoPrinzi, who tried the case with Jonathan Baumoel, called Sapharas a “scourge on our community for years.”

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“For 50 years, he evaded responsibility for the acts he committed,” he said.

LoPrinzi said the average age of the detectives and investigators who testified in Sapharas’ trial was 76. He thanked the many people who investigated Sapharas’ crimes over the years and then helped to finally bring him to justice, several who were in court for his sentencing.

“This sentence will be a reflection on their work and one what the defendant deserves,” he said.

LoPrinzi urged that Breaux impose the maximum possible penalty against Sapharas with a sentence of life without parole or with consecutive sentences for the two women’s slayings.

“I want you to let him know that what he did is inexcusable and he should have no hope of ever leaving prison,” he said.

Sister recalls impact her sister’s murder had on their family

Utterback, who testified in Sapharas’ trial and lives in Florida, said she wishes her parents and brother were still living to see her sister finally get justice. She said her father nailed the windows shut because of not knowing who killed his daughter and being concerned about the safety of his other family members. She said her father had a nervous breakdown and her mother turned to alcohol to numb her grief.

Utterback said this left her, at the age of 14, to care for her brother Jerry and for Laurie, Karen’s 4-year-old daughter.

Utterback said her sister was beautiful and kind and she “didn’t get enough time with her because Gus Sapharas took her away.”

“She did not deserve the fate she met on that night at the hands of him,” she said.

Utterback said her sister was a fighter and she knows she fought Sapharas that night, with evidence recovered from underneath her fingernails part of what eventually convicted Sapharas.

Utterback thanked Doug Bohon, a retired Tallmadge police captain, who reopened the investigation into Bentz’s murder and tied it together with Davis’ slaying.

Defense attorneys urge concurrent sentences and parole possibility

Eddie Sipplen, who represented Sapharas with attorney Jacob Will, urged Breaux to consider concurrent sentences for the two slayings and to consider a penalty of less than life without parole. He said to sentence Sapharas to consecutive sentences would be “cruel and unusual punishment,” especially considering Sapharas’ age.

Breaux asked Sapharas if he was waiving his opportunity to speak.

“Yes, ma’am,” he responded.

Breaux said she can’t imagine a case in which consecutive sentences were more appropriate than this one.

“There’s no greater harm than taking lives like this with no regard for who they were,” Breaux said. “They were daughters, sisters, mothers, friends, aunts. To viciously attack them and murder them in such a heinous way and then to dump their bodies.”

Breaux said she will give Sapharas credit for the three years he spent in jail, though this she noted is “somewhat irrelevant.”

“I hope that everyone touched by this case has some sense of closure today,” she said.

After the sentencing, Bohon said this case was a collaborative effort that spanned decades.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” he said. “A lot of good people had a hand in this. It was a crazy case.”

As Sapharas was led from the courtroom in handcuffs by deputies, Shenan Day, a retired Licking County sheriff detective who investigated the murder of a Columbus woman for which Sapharas was acquitted, called to him, “Good luck, Gus!”

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com, 330-996-3705 and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Gustave Sapharas man gets life without parole for two slayings in '70s