A Columbus woman who admitted to fatally overdosing four men who had met her for sexual encounters will be nearly 100 years old before she would be eligible to ask for an early release from prison.
Rebecca Auborn, 36, pleaded guilty on Dec. 19 to four counts of murder and one count of felonious assault in connection with the 2023 overdoses.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Karen Phipps sentenced Auborn on Feb. 19 to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for at least 15 years for a total of life in prison with no parole for 60 years.
Those who died were:
Members of families of the four men who died spoke in court before Phipps sentenced Auborn, talking about the gentle and kind spirits of those men.
The brothers of Joseph Crumpler said they spoke with Auborn the day after Crumpler’s death.
“She swore on her daughter’s life she had nothing to do with it,” Mark Crumpler said. “I hope at the end of the day hell denies her the peace my brother now has.”
But other families spoke of the forgiveness they offered Auborn.
“No matter how much torment this has caused, I could not ever bring myself to hate you and I never will,” Christiyn Crockett-Akins, the daughter of Wayne Akin, said.
Auborn’s attorney, Mark Hunt, said the woman Auborn is now is not the same person who committed the crimes. He said Auborn had been trafficked and abused for years, since before she was a teenager, and confessed on multiple occasions to police and psychologists.
“If she had not confessed to these, you guys aren’t getting justice at all,” Hunt said. “It was her admitting that she had drugged these guys such that they would pass out and she stole their stuff. These guys would have never stood out otherwise but for ultimately the statements made by my client.”
Phipps said she found Auborn’s actions inexcusable, but also had empathy for her and the rough life she has led.
“We know what created the monster that did this. It was created by a society where you didn’t have a person in your life who cared for you the way you deserved,” Phipps said. “What weighs on me is I have a courtroom full of people who have lost somebody due to your actions. You are the one who basically pulled the trigger. There wasn’t a gun involved but except for you, their relatives would still be alive.”
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor David Zeyen said another person involved in the case, who was described as Auborn’s “handler” by Hunt, is still under investigation. That man is currently facing trial on unrelated drug trafficking charges.
Columbus police arrested Auborn in 2023 and charged her in connection with the four overdose deaths, all of which happened at Northeast Side hotels.
Court records say Auborn met the men for sexual encounters and during the encounters she would give the men drugs and rob them. Auborn did this to at least five people. Four of the men died and a fifth lived, who helped lead police to Auborn, according to court records.
In at least one instance, Auborn told police she mixed fentanyl into the man’s crack pipe and took his vehicle and debit card while she knew he was overdosing, court records say.
After a Franklin County grand jury indicted Auborn, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost called Auborn a serial killer. Yost said Auborn’s multiple victims who died from a similar pattern of behavior over a period of time met the definition.
Academics, law enforcement and psychologists do not have an agreed upon or set definition of a serial killer, but most definitions agree that someone with at least three victims would qualify.
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus woman who fatally overdosed men given 4 life sentences
Reporting by Bethany Bruner, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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