Man sentenced to 60 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend in Aurora apartment complex

AURORA | An Aurora man was sentenced Tuesday to 60 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend in their apartment complex last year.

Dakota Chinnock, 21, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping charges. He was sentenced by Judge Elizabeth Weishaupl to 48 years behind bars for second-degree murder, the maximum penalty, and 12 years for kidnapping.

On Sept. 5 Chinnock called the police to report that his girlfriend, 20-year-old Amanda Farley, had been found dead in their City Center Station apartment in Aurora. When questioned by police he attempted to frame Farley’s murder as a home invasion and claimed that he had been out drinking the night before, according to a news release.

Investigators quickly found evidence contradicting Chinnock’s claim. Hours before he called the police, witnesses who lived nearby reported hearing sounds of yelling and a woman crying in the apartment, and there were no signs of forced entry, the release said. Surveillance video footage showed the couple arguing outside the door of the apartment and Chinnock hitting Farley in the head with an object resembling a propane tank.

He was arrested and charged with Farley’s murder on Sept. 7 in what police described as a “brutal attack.”

“The defendant brutally attacked this woman he supposedly loved for hours,” Deputy District Attorney Lisa Gramer said in a news release. “He ended the life of his high school sweetheart, whose only real mistake was that she loved him back.”

An article in the Lake County Leader newspaper said that Farley and Chinnock were from Polson, Montana and had attended Polson High School together, where Farley competed on the school’s golf team.

“There wasn’t a time you would not see Amanda smiling. She cherished her life and lived every moment to the fullest,” an obituary published in the Leader said. “We are heartbroken she was not on this earth long enough to let her true colors shine through.”