Christopher Lovrien
(Photo : KPTV screengrab)
Christopher Lovrien (C) was sentenced on Friday, April 26, 2024, to life in prison for the second of two killings he committed in Oregon more than 20 years apart.

An Oregon man who once told a judge to "go to hell" was sentenced to life in prison for the second of two killings he committed more than 20 years apart.

But former steelworker Christopher Lovrien, 57, had nothing to say in court Friday when he received the maximum punishment for a grisly, 2020 crossbow slaying, the Oregonian reported.

A jury in Multnomah County, Oregon, convicted Lovrien earlier this month of second-degree murder and first-degree abuse of a corpse in the death of Kenneth Griffin, 53.

Griffin's dismembered remains were found in a shed on Lovrien's property on May 19, 2020, nearly three months after Griffin disappeared from a bar in Portland, Oregon.

Lovrien, who represented himself during the trial after firing his court-appointed lawyers, claimed self-defense for shooting Griffin five times with a crossbow and hacking his face with an ax in Lovrien's basement, according to the Oregonian.

Lovrien then sawed apart Griffin's body and hid the parts in crates in his shed.

The discovery of Griffin's remains came after Lovrien was arrested on May 4, 2020, in the cold-case killing of Mark Dribin, who disappeared in July 1999 and whose body has never been found.

Authorities said DNA evidence evidence from cigarette butts tied Lovrien to Dribin's slaying and he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in January.

But after getting a 20-year sentence in that case, Lovrien complained that he could have beat the rap if he'd had the money to hire a lawyer.

"As far as the court is concerned I'm 100% in protest of this entire situation," he told Judge Heidi Moawad, the Oregonian reported at the time. "The court can go to hell."

On Friday, Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden produced records that showed Lovrien had more than $173,000 in the bank.

That prompted Judge Christopher Ramras to order that he pay $63,000 in court-appointed attorney fees, $25,000 in restitution to Griffin's family and $4,000 for his funeral. 

Lovrien will be eligible for parole after 46 years, according to the Oregonian.

With credit for time served, he would be nearly 100.