Inset: Ryan Christopher Hopkins (Hinds County Sheriff). Background: The area where Hopkins dumped the body of Celeste McDonald (WLBT).
A 39-year-old man in Mississippi will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing a 21-year-old woman in 2019, just days after she accused him of sexual assault and refused to recant her allegation.
A state judge on Wednesday ordered Ryan Christopher Hopkins to serve a sentence of life in prison without parole plus an additional 20 years for the slaying of Celeste McDonald, authorities announced. Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens II announced the sentence in a post to his office’s Facebook page, referring to Hopkins as a “throat-slashing murderer” and saying her death was the result of a “love triangle plot.”
The sentence came down after a jury found Hopkins guilty on one count of first-degree murder. The additional 20 years were the result of jurors finding guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
Hopkins girlfriend at the time, Yolonda Torns, was convicted on one count of second-degree murder in McDonald’s death. After committing the murder and cover-up together, Hopkins and Torns were married later that same day.
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Torns reached a plea deal with prosecutors last year in which she was required to cooperate with investigators and testify against Hopkins in his murder trial. She was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison — a 40-year sentence with 15 years suspended.
“There are crimes that shake you, and then there are crimes that haunt you. This was both,” Owens said in a statement to Jackson NBC affiliate WLBT. “Celeste’s death was planned, executed, and followed by a wedding. That is evil. Today’s verdict proves that cruelty knows no limits, but justice trumps cruelty.”
According to a report from Jackson CBS affiliate WJTV, McDonald was initially reported missing on March 31, 2019. Her body was found the following day in a roadside ditch that had been covered with bricks near Mound, Louisiana.
Investigators with the Jackson Police Department soon learned that McDonald in March 2019 accused Hopkins of sexually assaulting her. Just over a week after McDonald reported the alleged rape, investigators say he and Torns drove to McDonald’s home in Forest, Mississippi where they picked her up and transported her to a residence on Belvedere Drive, about 45 miles east of Jackson, according to Jackson ABC affiliate WAPT.
Once at the home with McDonald, Torns went back out to a local Walmart where she purchased bleach, detergent, and plastic wrap before returning to the home on Belvedere Drive, Torns testified, per WJTV. When she got back, Torns reportedly told authorities that Hopkins used a knife to slash McDonald’s throat. Torns herself then grabbed a second knife, which she used to stab McDonald.
The duo wrapped McDonald’s body in the recently-purchased plastic wrap and drove across state lines to Louisiana, where they disposed of her body in a the ditch, tossing numerous bricks on top of her remains.
Later that day, authorities said that Hopkins and Torns went back to Jackson where they got married, thinking it would prevent the State from forcing them to testify against each other. Under Mississippi, spousal privilege only covers communications and events that took place during the course of the marriage, not actions prior to marriage.
WJTV reported that the couple have since divorced.
