Kirk Levin was given a second chance at life after his release from prison on January 1, 2013. Instead of taking the right path, he went on a crime spree, murdering his 45-year-old mother before kidnapping an online friend from her apartment under false pretenses.
Two days after his release, Levin stabbed his mother multiple times inside her house and then drove off to his MySpace friend Jessica Vega's Storm Lake, Iowa, apartment, where he lured her out asking for help and asked her to drive him to a different location where he kidnapped her. Vega made a narrow escape after their car fell into a ditch, and a passerby spotted them and helped her escape.
Reports state that Kirk Levin was found guilty of first-degree murder and third-degree kidnapping that same year and is currently serving a life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary.
An upcoming episode of Dead Silent on ID is scheduled to revisit the kidnapping of Jessica Vega by her social media friend Kirk Levin and the latter's other crimes. The episode, titled The Sinner and the Saint, airs this Friday, April 7, at 7 pm ET.
The synopsis reads:
"When a troubled young man befriends Jessica Vega via social media, the kind-hearted college student and single mother does her best to steer him toward a better path; unfortunately, her good intentions come back to haunt her."Two days after his release from prison, Kirk Levin was arrested on kidnapping, murder, and other charges
Kirk Levin, from Early, Iowa, was arrested on January 3, 2013, and charged with murdering his 45-year-old mother Marilyn Schmitt and kidnapping a woman named Jessica Vega from her Storm Lake apartment within days of getting out of Mount Pleasant prison on New Year's Day after serving 26 months of a 5-year prison term on a third-degree burglary charge.
Authorities were initially called in on January 3 after 21-year-old Jessica Vega reported Levin for assaulting and kidnapping her after showing up at her apartment and asking for a ride in the morning hours of that day. She was able to flee and seek assistance from a passerby. Levin was found hiding in a neighboring barn and was charged with kidnapping, assault, and other related charges.
During the course of their investigation into the kidnapping and other related charges, authorities discovered the badly stabbed body of Levin's mother, Marilyn Schmitt, in an upstairs bedroom of her house at 2242 Ira Avenue in Early. Schmitt's death was classified as a homicide after preliminary autopsy results indicated that she suffered 88 sharp-force injuries caused by a kitchen knife.
Reports state that Levin stabbed Schmitt between 1:30 and 5:45 am on January 3, 2013, and that he later admitted "to law enforcement that he was the only one who could have killed the victim." He reportedly admitted that he "choked his mother and that he had to have killed her."
Kirk Levin was found guilty of murder and kidnapping charges that same year and is now serving life in Iowa
At Kirk Levin's trial, Jessica Vega, the Storm Lake woman he had kidnapped under false pretenses, gave testimony on how she managed to escape from his clutches. Levin decided not to testify, and his defense called no witnesses, but maintained that State failed to establish that Marilyn's killing was premeditated.
The Deputy Attorney General for Iowa, however, argued that the 45-year-old "didn't fall on a knife and cut herself by accident and that she didn't accidentally strangle herself," insisting that it was a premeditated act.
Levin was eventually found guilty of first-degree murder in his mother's stabbing death and third-degree kidnapping of Jessica Vega. He was sentenced to life in prison and compelled to pay $150,000 to Schmitt's heirs. He also received a 10-year prison term on the allegations of kidnapping and is currently serving life at the Iowa State Penitentiary.
ID's Dead Silent airs an episode on Levin's crimes, titled The Sinner and the Saint, this Friday, at 7 pm ET.
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