Madison man sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murders of 3

A Madison County man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole for 25 years after pleading guilty in August to the murders of three people, including a couple whose bodies were found buried in a field in March 2012.

Matthew Denholm, 30, pleaded guilty to murder in the shooting death of Zackary Flower, 25, a Berea resident and musician who had served with the National Guard. Flower died after a shooting at his Berea apartment on Nov. 21, 2011.

Denholm also pleaded guilty in August to two counts of murder in the 2010 deaths of Sonsaray "Sonsi" Warford, 30, and her boyfriend, Charles DeMarcus "Chew" Walker, 30. The couple had been missing for 21 months in March 2012 when their remains were found buried in a field near Richmond.

According to a police affidavit filed in 2012, Denholm was hired as a hit man to kill Walker, who had been targeted because he allegedly stole a large amount of money from a Richmond cocaine trafficker.

Warford, the mother of two sons, was killed only because she happened to be with Walker, the affidavit said.

This story was originally published October 1, 2014 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Madison man sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murders of 3."