Windsor Mill Man Sentenced To 50 Years In Pastor Murder

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — A Windsor Mill man was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for the murder of a pastor in 2017, according to prosecutors. He crashed into the pastor in a church parking lot, then stabbed him with a hunting knife, officials said.

Daniel Degoto, 43, of Windsor Mill, was sentenced to life in prison with all but 50 years suspended in Baltimore County Circuit Court on Friday, March 29, according to the state's attorney.

Officials said that Degoto drove his wife to Rahamis Ministry International Church in the 7800 block of Liberty Road on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2017, where she planned to attend worship service.

Degoto believed that the pastor — a "witch doctor" who practiced an unorthodox form of religion in the basement of a home on Liberty Road — had changed his wife over the course of a year, WMAR reported.

That day, Pastor Happy-Ikenwilo arrived with his wife and was getting items out of his car when officials said that Degoto hit him with his vehicle, knocking the pastor to the ground.

Then he got out of the vehicle and stabbed the man with a hunting knife 13 times in the head, neck, torso and other extremities. He was hospitalized and died within six hours, officials said.

Officials said Degoto left the scene but was arrested later that day in Howard County.

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