Man Who Raped, Killed 18-year-old Zoe Hastings Sentenced to Life in Prison

The man who brutally raped and murdered 18-year-old Zoe Hastings in October 2015 has been sentenced to life in prison.A Dallas County jury took less than seven minutes to sentence Antonio Cochran, 37, on Monday. The same jury convicted Cochran of murder, a lesser charge than he was on trial for, on Saturday after deliberating four days.Prosecutors argued that Cochran was all about "violent urges, sexual urges." Several witnesses described incidents in which Cochran had been found having sex his girlfriend's 17-year-old daughter. And one woman testified that people called Cochran "Chester the molester" in high school because of the way he would leer at his female classmates. By contrast, Zoe Hastings' friends and family described the teenager as a "light to everybody."Her father, Jim Hastings, was the final person to testify Monday. The art teacher described drawing his wife, Cheryl, when she was pregnant with Zoe, their first child, and then later drawing Zoe herself. "I drew her every stage of her life all the way up to her death," he said.   Continue reading...