Air Force member sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, killing woman

An Air Force member convicted of kidnapping and killing a 27-year-old Mennonite woman in 2020 was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday in Arizona.

Mark Gooch, an airman first class, was convicted by a jury in October on one count each of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of Sasha Krause. Krause's body was found Sunset Crater National Monument in Arizona a month after she disappeared.

Gooch, now 22, and Krause did not know each other.

“This case is truly the most senseless case I have ever presided over,” Coconino County Superior Court Judge Cathleen Brown Nichols said in handing down the sentence.

Gooch, who has denied kidnapping or killing Krause, showed no emotion as the judge sentenced him to prison for the rest of his natural life, which means no possibility of parole.