California inmate gets 30 years for 1980 Indiana killings

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A California inmate serving a life sentence has been sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison for the shooting deaths of two Indiana women more than 34 years ago.

Harry Rowley, 61, was sentenced Monday in Vigo County court after pleading guilty last month in the July 1980 slayings of Lucinda Farmer, 29, and Mary Quillen, 28. The women, who were roommates, were found dead in an alley behind their Terre Haute apartment complex, where Rowley also lived. They had been shot.

Investigators reopened the case four years ago. Terre Haute police interviewed Rowley at the California State Prison in Lancaster, California, in October 2013. Rowley was charged in January 2014 and extradited to Vigo County in December.

Rowley already is serving a life sentence in California for a separate killing. Under a plea agreement Rowley will receive 30-year prison sentences for each of the Indiana murder charges and serve them concurrently along with his life term in California, the Terre Haute Tribune Star reported (http://bit.ly/14W7Z8s ).

Court documents said Rowley told investigators he had been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana before he saw the women leaning on his car parked behind his apartment. He told investigators he then went into the apartment to retrieve a gun and shot each of them once.