Man linked to killings in NM sentenced for separate NJ murder

WOODBURY, N.J. (AP) — A man accused of killing several people in two states has been sentenced in New Jersey to 35 years in prison for the beating death of a former mentor.

Sean Lannon, 48, had pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder in the March 2021 slaying of Michael Dabkowski, 66. Gloucester County prosecutors have said Lannon broke into the victim’s East Greenwich home and beat him to death with a hammer.

Dabkowski had served as a mentor to Lannon and his twin brother when they were children in the 1980s and involved in a youth program. Lannon told investigators Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child and that he had gone to the home to retrieve sexually explicit photos, but no evidence was ever presented in court to support that claim.

Lannon, who was sentenced Wednesday, still faces murder charges in New Mexico stemming from the killing of his ex-wife and two of her friends whose decomposed bodies were found in a pickup truck parked at an Albuquerque airport in March 2021. Police have said the three were lured to their deaths over a period of weeks before they were dismembered and their remains stuffed into plastic bins.

Lannon is also charged in the death of another man in New Mexico who authorities say agreed to help him move the bins, unaware of what they contained.