Life in Prison

CELINA - A Marion, Indiana, woman on Thursday afternoon was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years on one count of aggravated murder, an unclassified felony.

Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffery Ingraham handed down the sentence to Sarah Buzzard, 30, that had been negotiated in a plea agreement that spared her the death penalty for killing Ryan Zimmerman, 21, of Columbus. Buzzard had pled guilty on Dec. 23.

Buzzard was credited with 149 days in the county jail and any additional days she spends there until transferred to prison.

In the event Buzzard is released from prison, she would be placed on parole under supervision of the parole board for five years to life. Should she violate probation, she could have the rest of her life prison sentence imposed, Ingraham said.

Zimmerman's partial skeletal remains were found by a woman walking her dog on Jan. 23, 2016, east of U.S. 127 at the mouth of Coldwater Creek, prompting a multiyear investigation lead by the Mercer County Sheriff's Office.

"There's no sentence the court could pronounce today that's ever going to undo the harm that Miss Buzzard did in her senseless murder of Ryan Zimmerman," county prosecutor Matthew Fox said on Thursday.

Fox said he hopes the conclusion of the case and sentence offers some form of closure for Zimmerman's family and friends.

Buzzard offered a statement ahead of sentencing, saying she was deeply sorry for the consequences of her actions and regrets not having the mental and emotional strength to do what was right and just and instead allowed herself to become inextricably tangled in her wife Naira Whitaker's "violent and murderous plan."

Whitaker in July 2015 moved in with Buzzard and Buzzard's then husband at their Columbus apartment and was engaging in an intimate relationship with Sarah Buzzard, according the stipulation of facts in Buzzard's guilty plea that she had signed. Buzzard and her husband later divorced before Buzzard and Whitaker were married, according to the document. Whitaker reportedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot on Aug. 25, 2021, when investigators attempted to arrest her in connection with Zimmerman's murder.

Buzzard on Thursday characterized herself as a good person hoping for a second chance. She said she accepts responsibility for the role she played in Zimmerman's death. Buzzard claimed she is not a monster or a threat to society, not an evil force that deserves to be locked away forever. She called herself a flawed human who made a terrible mistake becoming involved in a grave situation.

Fox addressed the change in details from Buzzard's initial account compared to statements provided during a pre-sentence investigation and statements made to the court on Thursday. During an Aug. 25, 2021, interview in Marion, Indiana, from which the stipulation of facts was drafted, Buzzard had taken full responsibility for Zimmerman's murder, Fox said. She had confessed to strangling Zimmerman to death in the Columbus apartment in the presence of Whitaker, Fox said.

Fox said Buzzard had told law enforcement Whitaker had assisted her in dismembering Zimmerman's body, cleaning up the scene, destroying evidence of a homicide and disposing of Zimmerman's body parts.

Buzzard had also told law enforcement that Zimmerman's killing was an accident and had caused her to ruin her life, Fox said. She claimed Zimmerman was the source of many arguments and discontent in the household she shared with her then husband, Fox noted.

She had indicated she was angry the day she killed Zimmerman, knocking him to the ground and strangling him after he had come out of the bathroom, Fox said.

In the pre-sentence investigation, however, Buzzard changed course, claiming that Whitaker had had enough and Whitaker had planned to kill Zimmerman, Fox said. Buzzard reportedly said she didn't take the plan seriously until Whitaker had started gathering up items to murder Zimmerman and cover up the crime, Fox said.

Following through with this revised account of events, Fox said Buzzard did nothing to save Zimmerman. Buzzard cited her love for Whitaker as the reason why she didn't act otherwise, Fox said.

Rather than warn Zimmerman or try to get him out of the residence to save him from being killed by Whitaker, Buzzard went along with the plan and conspired to murder Zimmerman, dismember his body and discard the parts in dumpsters throughout the state and alongside the lake in Mercer County, Fox said.

But for the purposes of Buzzard's guilty plea, the legal culpability was established in court last month and nothing of what Buzzard said in the pre-sentence investigation or in court on Thursday changes or negates that culpability, Fox argued.

"She either murdered Ryan herself or is complicit in the murder of him and both are sufficient for this court to proceed to sentencing on a plea of aggravated murder," Fox said.

Warren Zimmerman, Ryan Zimmerman's father, addressed the court Thursday, fighting back tears as he revealed the "hurt, sorrow, anger and hopelessness" he experiences from having lost his son.

To have lost his son in such a barbaric and inhumane way is unconscionable, Warren Zimmerman said, adding that actions should have consequences and that Buzzard should not get a life outside prison for what she did to his son.

Warren Zimmerman also noted that his other son, Ray, had a special bond with Ryan. Ryan was good to his brother, teaching him many things, playing video games and watching movies with him, the father said. Ray often stops in the middle of something to say he misses his brother, he continued.

The court on Thursday also heard from Ryan's sister, Amanda Moran via a live video. She and Ryan were ten years apart in age. Ryan was smart, sweet and spoke well beyond his age, much like her own son, she said. Ryan was just trying to find himself and his place in the world, just beginning to live for himself - and no one deserves for that to be taken away, she said.

She voiced regret knowing her husband and children will never have the chance to know the beautiful, sweet person she called her baby brother.

Fox argued that Buzzard deserves a more sever sentence than the one laid out in the plea agreement. However, due to those negations that he conducted, a harsher sentence is not available to the court, Fox said.

Many cases are resolved through such negotiations where both sides compress their positions, Fox said, noting the process has significant value to the legal system, community, victims of crime, loved ones and legal representatives. It can bring about swifter resolutions to cases and finality.

Ingraham, before pronouncing sentence, pointed out he was required by law to consider various factors, including the facts that the victim suffered serious physical harm in the form of death, Buzzard's relationship with the victim facilitated the offense and she committed the offense as part of an organized criminal activity.

Ingraham also noted Buzzard has no prior adjudications of delinquency nor any criminal convictions in the past and hence has been a law abiding citizen for a significant number of years.