Connor scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for 2007 murder of Kent woman

Randall Edward Connor is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in King County Superior Court in Seattle for the first-degree murder of Merianne Lorentson in 2007 at her Kent apartment.

Randall Edward Connor is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in King County Superior Court in Seattle for the first-degree murder of Merianne Lorentson in 2007 at her Kent apartment.

Sentencing is set for 3:30 p.m. before Judge Sharon Armstrong at the King County Courthouse, courtroom E-847, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. He faces a sentence range of 23 to 28 years in prison.

A King County Superior Court jury found Connor, 31, guilty on April 14 after one day of deliberations.

Lorentson, 24, an aspiring model and a single mother of a then 5-year-old daughter, was found March 9, 2007 stabbed to death in her living room at an apartment in the 10400 block of Kent-Kangley Road. She was stabbed more than 30 times in her head, neck and body, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report.

Connor, who once lived in SeaTac, had dated Lorentson, according to the charging papers.

Kent detectives used DNA test results, cell phone records and interviews with friends and relatives of Connor and Lorentson to build their case against Connor.

Lorentson had told friends that she feared Connor because he had assaulted and threatened her at gunpoint, according to the charging papers. Connor also had reportedly told Lorentson he would kill any man he saw with her. Relatives of Connor told police that Lorentson had broken up with him.

Connor pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge in April 2008.


Talk to us

Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.

To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.

More in News

Courtesy File Photo, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Kent School District issues staff protocols for ICE

Message aims to prepare staff should immigration authorities appear at or near schools

File Photo, Kent Reporter
Train strikes, kills Kent man, 64, in wheelchair on tracks

Feb. 4 incident at East James Street second death by train in three days in Kent

File Photo, Kent Reporter
Kent Police Blotter: Jan. 12-18

Incidents include attempted robbery, carjackings

File Photo, Kent Reporter
Kent woman standing on tracks struck and killed by train | Update

Woman identified; reportedly waving at train Feb. 2 in the 1000 block of First Avenue North

Image courtesy King County Sheriff's Office
Super Bowl patrols underway as part of ‘Night of 1,000 Stars’ campaign

Emphasis patrols will be active in King County to encourage safe driving

COURTESY PHOTO, Sound Transit
No light rail service in Kent on Saturday, Feb. 7

Sound Transit to close line between Federal Way and Angle Lake for maintenance; buses will run

t
Kent high school students hit streets to protest ICE

Hundreds oppose actions that resulted in deaths of protesters in Minneapolis and removal of immigrants

United States Courthouse in Seattle. COURTESY PHOTO, USDOJ
Man pleads guilty to home invasion robberies in Kent, elsewhere

Armed, masked men entered homes in 2022 and tied up victims as they ransacked places

t
King County Metro rolls out new fleet of battery-electric buses

Routes in Kent, Auburn and Renton among the cities that will feature the new buses

Kent Police arrest a suspect Jan. 16 after he reportedly stabbed a man earlier in the day at the Kent Library. COURTESY PHOTO, King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office
Man, 37, faces assault charge in Kent Library stabbing

Reportedly stabbed 18-year-old man in arm Jan. 16 in unprovoked attack

U.S. Courthouse in Seattle. COURTESY PHOTO, USDOJ
Man found guilty of robbing multiple people in King County

2-hour carjacking spree in 2022 covered Kent, Bellevue, Redmond, Seattle and ended in Renton

t
Kent man sentenced to over 10 years for Auburn bank robbery

The defendant had multiple felonies on his criminal record.