A Chase County District Court jury has found a Colorado man guilty of 2nd-degree murder in the 2019 slaying of an Imperial woman.
26-year old Kevin German of Colorado Springs was also found guilty of kidnapping and 1st-degree false imprisonment after a week-long trial in Imperial. He faces up to life in prison when he’s sentenced November 18.
German was arrested for allegedly kidnapping two women and holding them in a home in southwest Nebraska near Enders.
Eve Ambrosek was found safe 3 days after being taken, but the body of 22-year old Annika Swanson was found in an irrigation pipe near Imperial.
German’s girlfriend, 25-year old Keonna Carter of Taylorsville, Utah, is awaiting trial on charges of 1st-degree assault and kidnapping from the case. She had been charged with 1st-degree murder, but took a plea deal and testified against German.
Carter said German had a previous relationship with Ambrosek and was owed money by both women for past purchases of methamphetamine.
Carter said they’d been holding Ambrosek and Swanson in a trailer for a few days when German became angry with Swanson. The pair took Swanson away in a car, beat her, and put her in the trunk.
After visiting a couple rural locations, German stopped on property his family owned and ordered Swanson to get into an abandoned vertical irrigation pipe – throwing lit paper and a lit glove down after her.
Carter said she stayed in the car, but heard Swanson screaming at first and then calling out to German as they drove away – abandoning her.