Chester man gets life in prison in woman’s 2015 strangling death

A Chester man was sentenced to life in prison Friday, after a jury found him guilty in the 2015 strangling death of a neighbor, said Randy Newman, 6th Circuit Solicitor..

Murder carries a minimum of 30 years in prison, with a maximum of life without parole. Bell was sentenced to the maximum by visiting Judge Paul Burch.

Jermaine Marquel Bell, 32, was charged weeks after the body of Judith Lindsay, 51, was found in September 2015, two doors down from where Lindsay lived on Fifth Street in Chester.

Lindsay’s body was found naked and had been dragged, police said.

During the weeklong trial, police and prosecutors argued that Bell was the last person to see Lindsay alive. They also argued that they had DNA linking Bell to the crime.

Bell’s lawyers argued that he denied the charges from the beginning, and that he was wrongly targeted as the culprit. Bell did not testify.

The trial hit several snags, including the dismissal of three jurors early in the week.

This story was originally published June 30, 2017 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Chester man gets life in prison in woman’s 2015 strangling death."