Jeffrey Conrad laughed and sneered as a judge sentenced him to life in prison Wednesday for the 2014 killing of Cuyahoga Falls mother Amanda Russell.

AKRON, Ohio - The Akron man who took the unusual step of not attending his own murder trial laughed and sneered as a judge sentenced him to life in prison for killing a Cuyahoga Falls mother.

Summit County Common Pleas Judge Paul Gallagher did not respond to Jeffrey Conrad's profanity-laced courtroom antics as he sentenced him Wednesday to life plus an additional 11 years in prison, without the possibility of parole.

Conrad, 46, waived his right to have an attorney help him or provide any defense in the trial that ended in him being convicted of killing Amanda Russell. Conrad stabbed the 40-year-old mother more than 50 times on Aug. 28, 2014, prosecutors said.

Conrad was also sentenced for stabbing a fellow Summit County Jail inmate in the head with a shank he fashioned out of a toilet plunger. The inmate suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack.

Russell's relatives and friends did not acknowledge Conrad's taunts in the courtroom. But her parents reacted strongly after Wednesday's sentencing hearing.

"He deserves to rot in hell," Russell's mother Debbie Bowman said. "I'll never say his name again."

Her husband Belford Bowman, who is Russell's stepfather, concurred.

"It's pathetic. That's all it is. It's just a front," he said. "He knows what he's done. And he knows the severity of it, and he knows what it's done to us. But some people just don't care."

Conrad interjected each time Gallagher and Assistant Prosecutor Angela Walls-Alexander spoke during the hearing.

"Hilarious," he said as Gallagher sentenced him to a lifetime behind bars.

When given the opportunity to speak, Conrad spewed an expletive-laced tirade at the judge, the prosecutor and Russell's family and friends.

"You're all going to be dead before I die in jail," Conrad sneered. "None of you are going to get satisfaction watching me die in jail."

Conrad also laughed as Walls-Alexander argued that he should receive a maximum sentence.

"I think that the defendant has expressed zero remorse for anything that he has done," Walls-Alexander said. "He seems to think that taking the life of a woman who was loved by her family is funny."

Conrad's decision to not attend his own murder trial was rare, but experts said that the law allowed it to move forward because he voluntarily waived his rights. He previously was found competent to stand trial and was allowed to represent himself throughout the pretrial proceedings with an appointed stand-by attorney.

Prosecutors said during the three-day trial that Russell and Conrad had a volatile relationship. The two dated and lived together in Akron. He attacked her several times, including once in in front of Russell's teenage daughter.

Russell and her daughter moved into a new home in Cuyahoga Falls. But Conrad discovered where they lived and killed Russell, prosecutors said.

Russell's daughter, who was 14 at the time of her mother's death, testified about finding her mother dead in the backyard after walking home from Cuyahoga Falls High School. The girl is now 17 years old and living with her grandparents, Debbie Bowman said Wednesday.

Cleveland Metroparks rangers arrested Conrad after a short chase that ended with Conrad swimming into Lake Erie. Conrad was found in possession of the hunting knife used to kill Russell, prosecutors said.

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