A 39-year-old man in Mississippi will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a 21-year-old woman in 2019, just days after she accused him of sexual assault and refused to recant her claim.
A state judge on Wednesday sentenced Ryan Christopher Hopkins to life in prison without parole plus an additional 20 years for the murder of Celeste McDonald, according to authorities. Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens II announced the sentence on his office’s Facebook page, calling Hopkins a “throat-slashing murderer” and claiming her death was the result of a “love triangle plot.”
Hopkins’ sentence was imposed after a jury found him guilty of one count of first-degree murder. Jurors found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, which resulted in an additional 20 years.
Yolonda Torns, Hopkins’ girlfriend at the time, was convicted of one count of second-degree murder in McDonald’s death. Hopkins and Torns married later that day, after they committed the murder and covered it up.
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Torns and prosecutors reached a plea deal last year in which she agreed to cooperate with investigators and testify against Hopkins in his murder trial. She was then sentenced to 25 years in prison — a 40-year sentence with 15 years suspended.
“Some crimes shake you, while others haunt you. “This was both,” Owens told Jackson’s NBC affiliate WLBT. “Celeste’s death was planned, carried out, and followed by a wedding.” That’s evil. Today’s verdict demonstrates that cruelty knows no bounds, but justice triumphs.”
According to Jackson CBS affiliate WJTV, McDonald was first reported missing on March 31, 2019. Her body was discovered the next day in a brick-lined roadside ditch near Mound, Louisiana.
Investigators with the Jackson Police Department quickly discovered that in March 2019, McDonald accused Hopkins of sexual assault. Investigators say that just over a week after McDonald reported the alleged rape, he and Torns drove to her home in Forest, Mississippi, picked her up, and transported her to a residence on Belvedere Drive, about 45 miles east of Jackson, according to Jackson ABC affiliate WAPT.
Torns testified that after returning to the home with McDonald, she went to a local Walmart and bought bleach, detergent, and plastic wrap before returning to the home on Belvedere Drive, according to WJTV. When Torns returned, she reportedly told authorities that Hopkins slashed McDonald’s throat with a knife. Torns then grabbed a second knife and stabbed McDonald.
The duo wrapped McDonald’s body in the recently purchased plastic wrap and drove across state lines to Louisiana, where they dumped her body in a ditch, tossing numerous bricks on top of her remains.
Later that day, authorities said Hopkins and Torns returned to Jackson, where they married, believing it would keep the State from forcing them to testify against each other. Spousal privilege in Mississippi applies only to communications and events that occurred during the marriage, not to actions taken prior to marriage.