BOISE -- An Idaho City man who killed two men, chopped them into pieces, and discarded their remains in a remote area of Boise County was sentenced Friday to life behind bars.
Michael Stephen Dauber, 45, will be eligible to seek parole after 17 years.
Prosecutors had offered a deal that would have allowed Dauber a chance of parole after 13 to 15 years if he led investigators to the spot where parts of one of the victims had been dumped. His defense attorney said he tried to find the partial remains, but was unable to.
Family members of the murdered men - 25-year-old Joshua Reddington and 45-year-old Steve Kalogerakos - confronted the killer in the courtroom.
Vera Pohto, Reddington's mother, said she can't bring herself to forgive Dauber. In a letter she became too overcome with emotion to read, she called him "a cold-blooded killer" and accused him of showing no remorse for the murders.
Dauber killed Reddington, his coworker at a Montana helicopter logging company, in 2000. A witness testified earlier in the case that Dauber compared himself to an archangel and said he had to kill the 25-year-old in order to "banish the evil." The witness said after he refused to help Dauber move the young man's body, Dauber dragged Reddington into a crawl space beneath the cabin they were staying in, and began sawing him into pieces.
Prosecutors say he shot Kalogerakos, his childhood friend, to death seven years later. Like Reddington, Kalogerakos' body was dismembered and buried in a shallow grave in Boise County.
Kalogerakos' sister, Maria Kalogerakos, said in court her family had trusted Dauber and considered him a friend. She said his actions had robbed her of her brother and her children of their uncle.
Dauber's defense attorney spoke about the defendant's childhood as the son of a feared Mafia killer. The defense also described his military service, during which he was injured in Iraq and developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ultimately, the judge chose to honor the plea deal, handing down the 17-to-life sentence to which Dauber and prosecutors had agreed. With credit for time served, Dauber's parole eligibility date will come closer to 15 years.
"I am painfully aware that there is no sentence to fix this, nothing to bring back those the victims have lost," the judge said.
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