A man recently convicted of a 1980 homicide in Woods Cross will serve more than two decades behind bars before getting any chance for parole, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole announced Friday.

Edward Lewis Owens, 58, is scheduled for his first parole hearing in December 2032.

Earlier this year, Owens was convicted by a 2nd District Court jury of first-degree felony murder of 24-year-old Karin Saltzgiver Strom at her husband's Woods Cross home.

DNA found under Strom's fingernails and on her underwear matched Owens, according to forensics experts who tested old evidence with new methods after the case was reopened in 2006.

When Owens was sentenced in May, he stunned the courtroom by claiming the victim's husband, Steven Strom, offered him half of Karin Strom's life insurance money in exchange for killing her.

Owens claimed Steven Strom gave him a key to the house, but that he went there to warn Karin Strom that her husband wanted her dead.

However, Owens said, there was an argument and he ended up strangling and killing the woman.

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