A Polson, Colorado man has been sentenced in the beating death of his girlfriend that authorities say was so savage her face was “unrecognizable” as human!
According to information from Colorado’s 18th Judicial District, the man, 21-year-old Dakota Chinnock, was sentenced to 60 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to charges of second-degree murder and kidnapping. The punishment handed down by Arapahoe County Judge Elizabeth Ann Weishaupl includes 48 years behind bars for the homicide and 12 years for kidnapping.
His victim was 20-year-old Amanda Lynn Farley, also of Polson. Chinnock and Farley both recently graduated from Polson High School. Farley was apparently his girlfriend since their High School days.
Court information details the grisly homicide that left Farley beaten so badly that she was “unrecognizable” when officers found her dead on the floor of the apartment the two shared.
On that morning in September of 2021, Chinnock called police to report that he found Farley unconscious and not breathing in their apartment in Aurora, a suburb of Denver.
When officers arrived, they discovered Farley lying face up on a bedroom floor with severe swelling to her face. The investigation also revealed multiple human bite marks on Farley’s body.
When questioned by police, Chinnock suggested her death may have resulted from a home invasion. He claimed he had been drinking earlier in the night, and when he woke up, the apartment was in disarray, and Farley was in a pool of blood.
Investigators noted there was no smell of alcohol on Chinnock, and there appeared to be no forced entry into the apartment unit.
Hours prior to Chinnock calling police, witnesses living in the complex reported hearing yelling and a female crying from the apartment, court information states.
Surveillance video obtained by detectives reportedly showed Chinnock and Farley arguing outside the apartment. In the video, Chinnock is seen grabbing an object resembling a propane tank and hitting Farley in the head with it. Surveillance footage then shows both going into the apartment and out of the camera’s view.
“The defendant brutally attacked this woman he supposedly loved, for hours,” Deputy District Attorney Lisa Gramer said in a press release. “He ended the life of his high school sweetheart, whose only real mistake was that she loved him back.”
Chinnock’s sentence is the maximum allowed for second-degree murder in Colorado.
“I cannot address the pain, the suffering, the grief, and the loss that happened through Mr. Chinnock’s actions,” Judge Weishaupl said during sentencing. “There is no sentence I could give that would allow me to heal what Mr. Chinnock has done.”
District Attorney John Kellner said Chinnock “deserves to never walk the streets again.”
“He came up with a phony story of a home invasion which was easily debunked by the physical evidence,” Kellner said.
Born in Missoula, Farley graduated from Polson High in 2019 and was a member of the Lady Pirates golf team. Prior to her death, she was employed at New Horizon Academy, an early education and childcare facility in Denver.
Put him in general population, justice will be served.
Absolutely that is the best way to serve justice in this horrible cowardly act of evil upon a sweet young woman who cared for children and had so much love to give in this sick world! She is in heaven I’m positive and God loved her always; but this SOB needs to be dispatched to his eternal damnation in the darkest pit which God has prepared for such evil! The world misses you miss Amanda Lynn Farley; you are part of God’s plan and suffered not in vain! Love to you!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
Any males that abuse women in any such cowardly poor excuse for a human being way; deserve all the punishment they get in this world and in eternity!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence Morra III
Unfortunately, we cannot roll time back and give her back her life. We lost a family member recently, when she announced that she had been accepted into medical school tried to leave a similar relationship. Her “friend,” who didn’t have a job or attend school, shot her in the head and killed her.