Ohio handyman gets life without parole for killing 2 who survived WWII concentration camps

Ohio handyman gets life in murders of 2 women

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland handyman has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the crowbar beating deaths of two Polish immigrants who survived World War II concentration camps.

Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McMonagle on Friday sentenced 58-year-old William Bryant, who had worked as a handyman doing odd jobs for both victims.

Bryant sat impassively through the court session and blinked when the judge imposed the sentence.

Prosecutors say robbery was the motive behind the 2006 murders of 81-year-old Mary Hopko and 80-year-old Maria Slivka.

Prosecutors say the women were sent to German forced labor camps and survived wartime concentration camps. They met around 1950 in Cleveland at their hospital jobs and became friends.