On Monday, a Forsyth woman was sentenced to 100 years with 30 years suspended for killing a Sidney man nearly a year ago.
On Jan. 27, 2022, 51-year-old Lyndsee Brewer went to Sidney and murdered 50-year-old Christopher A. Wetzstein inside his apartment. Brewer was a long-time friend and business associate of Wetzstein.
On Jan. 28, 2022, Sidney police officers were dispatched to Wetzstein's apartment after receiving a welfare check request due to Wetzstein not showing up for work. When officers arrived at the apartment, they located Wetzstein deceased in his bed with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy report determined the manner of death as homicide and cause of death due to the gunshot wound.
Brewer took a plea agreement in Oct. On Jan. 23, she sat in the Richland Co. Court for sentencing, where family and friends of Wetzstein spoke about the impact his death had on them. Judge Katherine Bidegaray presided over the case and said that Brewer's actions were inexcusable and fit the nature of deliberate homicide, according to an article published by KFYR TV.
"She murdered the man who helped her and cared for her," Wetzstein's girlfriend said. "She murdered the father of three amazing people."
Brewer also had people stand up in court to defend her character.
"She has served as the voice of reason and compassion countless times to all of those whose lives she entered," Brewer's son Steven Frost said.
Judge Bidegaray disagreed.
"Never during that entire time [of the killing] did your voice of reason that some of the people who wrote in your character letters in your support, ever surface to make you realize that what you were about to do was cold-hearted, cold-blooded, murder," Bidegaray said to Brewer.
“After hiding for hours behind the couch, [Brewer] then took out her gun and shot Chris in the head while he slept. How much more cold and premeditated does it get,” Richland Co. Attorney Charity McLarty said in court.
McLarty said that Brewer would have to serve at least 25 years before she would be able to appeal for parole.
