Dominick Degner, center, and inset on the left, was sentenced for the murder of Tonette Wolfe, inset on the right, in Mason City, Iowa on July 31, 2023. (Screengrab via KAAL; Cerro Gordo County Jail; Obituary)
An Iowa man will spend the next several decades in prison for killing his girlfriend and setting her body ablaze, a judge ruled on Monday.
Dominick Daniel Degner, 29, was sentenced to a mandatory term of 50 years in prison by a judge in a small Cerro Gordo County courtroom after being convicted on one count of murder in the second degree, according to Austin, Minnesota-based ABC affiliate KAAL.
The judge overseeing the case reportedly remarked there was little to say about the condemned man’s conduct but that it was “heinous.”
On Sept. 7, 2021, just after 5:00 a.m., Mason City Fire Department crews arrived at a residence on North Tennessee Avenue in response to calls about a house fire. After extinguishing the inferno, the body of Tonette Nadine Wolfe, 24, was found in the smoldering rubble.
In late December 2021, Degner was arrested and charged with one count each of murder in the first degree, and arson in the second degree, Des Moines-based CBS affiliate KCCI reported at the time. The defendant and his victim both lived in the ruined house.
A criminal complaint obtained by Mason City-based radio station KGLO detailed the brutality of the crime: Degner beat Wolfe until she died, causing her death by way of blunt force trauma, a broken rib, a punctured lung, and a partially broken neck bone. He later set her body on fire in an attempt to cover up the fatal violence.
According to court documents obtained by local CBS affiliate KIMT, Wolfe died three days before the fire was finally set by Degner.
Wolfe worked as a cook when she died, her obituary in the Carroll Times Herald said, and she specialized in making steaks.
“She had a great love for cooking,” the eulogy reads. “Toni enjoyed music, walks, hiking, driving and being outdoors. She was a ‘people person’ who loved small animals, especially goats. Showing goats with her family at the fair was a special time for her.”
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The remembrance went on:
Toni had a quick wit, a mouth with no filter and had no problem ignoring rules if they got in the way of having fun. “She was like the wind,” her father said, “you couldn’t cage her.” She will be remembered for her great laugh.
No motive for the initial crime that took Wolfe’s life has ever been floated by law enforcement. Law&Crime reached out to the Cerro Gordy County Attorney’s Office for additional details on the case but no response was immediately forthcoming.
Degner was originally set to go on trial in October 2022, after first waiving and later invoking his right to a speedy trial. Those proceedings were then pushed back until June of this year. In May, however, he entered an Alford plea – in which a defendant formally maintains his innocence but concedes that the state has enough evidence to convict him – on one count of second-degree murder.
“You said you would treat my daughter, Toni, like you would want someone to treat your daughter,” Wolfe’s biological mother, Laura Snyder, said in a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing. “Is this how you want someone to treat your daughter? To take their life? I don’t think so. That’s all I need to say.”
Degner was also ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to the victims.
The defendant reportedly had little to say for himself – except that he did not expect to be forgiven, KAAL reported. The deceased woman’s adoptive parents could not bear to attend the hearing but reportedly expressed themselves in terms similar to Snyder’s, in a victim impact statement read aloud by an advocate with the Mason City Crisis Intervention Center
Tonette Wolfe would have turned 26 on Sunday.
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