Two people have been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 2017 murder and dismemberment of their former roommate in Maryland.
Christina Harnish, also known as Christina Stallings, and William Rice were sentenced Friday to the maximum punishment for second-degree murder in the murder of Megan Tilman.
Body parts of Tilman, an Annapolis mother of two, washed up on the Shady Side shoreline weeks after she was killed.
In the fall of 2017, Rice and Harnish were roommates with Tilman and his elderly mother and relied on their financial support. When Tilman stopped providing that support, he disappeared, prosecutors said.
Tilman's family reported that they no longer heard from her. Her ex-husband reported receiving suspicious text messages and seeing social media posts on her account that were different from her normal communications.
At the time, Rice and Harnish had fled to Arizona by bus, State Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said in a news release.
the baltimore sun reported that public defender Anne Stewart-Hill said Harnish began a three-way affair with Rice and Tilman after leaving an abusive relationship. She moved in with the couple and Tilman's ailing mother.
Police and prosecutors said Harnish and Rice manipulated Tilman, who had an intellectual disability, into taking money from her mother.
Assistant State Attorney Glen Neubauer said it was Tilman's money that paid for Harnish and Rice's bus tickets to Arizona, where they lived in a homeless encampment for nearly four years. They were extradited to Maryland in February 2022 after being arrested by local officials in Pima County, Arizona.
Lawyers for both defendants said the fatal fight with Tilman was sparked by alcohol and crack.
