Bobbie Little receives 40-year sentence for stabbing ‘best friend’ to death over drugs

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids man will spend 40 years in prison for killing a woman he called his 'best friend” because she wouldn't give him drugs.

Sixth Judicial District Marsha Bergan sentenced Bobbie Little, 34, on Friday to 40 years in prison. Little pleaded last month to voluntary manslaughter, first-degree robbery and second-degree theft. Bergan ran the sentences on the charge consecutively in accordance with the plea agreement.

Little admitted during the plea hearing to stabbing Shanna Beyhl to death on April 3, 2014 because she wouldn't give him crack cocaine. He grabbed a knife when Beyhl, 37, refused to give him the drugs, threatened her, and then stabbed her. He also admitted to stealing items from her, including a gaming system, two cellphones, two televisions and a digital camera.

Beyhl's father, Jerry Irvine of Moline, Ill., in a written victim's impact statement read in court by a Horizon's advocate, said his 'precious Shanna” would always be in their heart and they would have to live with lost dreams of their daughter seeing her three children grow up. Words for are inadequate to describe their loss, he wrote.

'This has left a huge hole in our hearts,” Irvine said. 'Shanna was trying to get over some bumps in her life…it's hard to think in this small window (of time) her life was taken.”

Little told the judge before she sentenced him that he was sorry for 'what happened that night” and apologized to Beyhl's family.

Beyhl was stabbed 18 times, according to the medical examiner, Assistant Linn County Attorney Nic Scott said last month. At least one of the wounds, to the jugular vein, was 'fatal in nature.” Investigators found Beyhl's blood on Little's clothes and Little confessed to killing Beyhl. He told police Beyhl was his best friend.

Bergan previously ruled the confession couldn't be used at trial, saying Little's rights were violated. Little asked for a lawyer the day before during his first police interview. And his lawyer was not present during the second interview.

Bergan told Little on Friday he will be required to serve 17 of 25 years for first-degree robbery before becoming eligible for parole.

She added that she agreed with Beyhl's father that the 'loss of a child cannot be expressed adequately with words.”

Little also was ordered to pay victim restitution to Beyhl's estate of $150,000 and reimburse the state's victim assistance program for $7,378.