MANSFIELD — Walter Renz will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The 54-year-old man convicted of murdering Mansfield woman Patsy Hudson was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole by Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese on Monday.
Renz was given a chance to speak before being sentenced. All he uttered was, “I’m sorry.”
Last Friday, a seven-man, five-woman jury found Renz guilty of aiding and abetting aggravated murder, murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property, misuse of a credit card and identity fraud in connection with Patsy Hudson’s death.
Although Hudson’s cause of death was never determined, Renz and his girlfriend Linda Buckner dismembered her body and scattered her body parts in northern Richland County in the summer of 2015.
“You and Linda Buckner conceived one of the most grisly murder schemes that I’ve ever experienced in my 27 years on the bench,” DeWeese said.
The couple was arrested in February 2016 at a roadside camp in Tennessee after traveling the country for months and using Hudson’s debit card.
DeWeese said that if Renz hadn’t used Hudson’s debit card, he may never have been caught.
“Thank goodness for your greed,” he said.
After a six-day trial, Buckner was convicted on Nov. 30, 2016 of aggravated murder, murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property, misuse of a credit card, and identity fraud. She received the maximum penalty and is serving a life sentence without parole.
Renz’s trial was supposed to start in August, but Josh Brown, Renz’s defense attorney, filed a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The motion was upheld and DeWeese ordered the defendant undergo a mental evaluation.
Renz was found incompetent to stand trial after the mental evaluation and was committed to Heartland Behavioral Healthcare in Massillon.
In January of this year, a forensic psychologist issued a report saying Renz was competent to stand trial.
A letter written by Hudson’s son, Lonnie Clevenger, was read aloud in the courtroom Monday. Clevenger described his mother as a big-hearted person, noting she would help anyone she could, including animals.
“I hope that the people who have read or seen this on the news don’t get a cold heart over what Walter and Linda have done,” Clevenger wrote. “We should help one another regardless of what someone else has done.”
Years ago, Hudson gave her son a pendant that’s inscribed with the verse Isaiah 54:17, “No weapons formed against you shall prosper.”
“She was right: Walter and Linda did not prosper,” Clevenger wrote.
