Austin McLeod, 27, convicted of murdering 24-year-old Aaron Stitt on Sept. 25, 2021, and helping his two alleged accomplices hide the man’s body in a refrigerator in a Medford apartment, was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life.

Judge Kelly Ravassipour handed down the sentence following McLeod’s week-long trial that began May 8. A jury found McLeod guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. 

Prosecutors said McLeod was complicit in the plan to kill Stitt after robbing him of drugs at co-defendant Brycen Scofield’s apartment, and covering up the crime. Dylan McLeod, Austin McLeod’s brother, and Scofield face murder trials later this year.

McLeod’s defense attorneys conceded that their client helped put Stitt’s body in the refrigerator and tried to clean up the crime scene, but they argued that McLeod did not commit robbery or murder.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Ravassipour ordered McLeod to spend at least 25 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. McLeod will face a lifetime of supervision if he is ever released, and he was ordered to pay $12,275 in restitution to Stitt’s family.

Before imposing sentence on McLeod, Ravassipour noted she would limit her comments on the case, since Dylan McLeod and Scofield still face murder trials.

“This is about as extreme of a case as it can be,” Ravassipour said. “You went in to commit a robbery with your brother and co-defendant, and murder resulted in that.”

She said Austin McLeod could be paroled “someday,” at which point she hopes he will live “a full and meaningful life.”

Moments before his sentence was imposed, McLeod, wearing a green jail jumpsuit, gave Ravassipour some things to consider about his case. Chief among them, he said, was his decision after escaping the crime scene on Royal Avenue to call police and report Scofield had allegedly beaten Stitt with a hammer.

“I was acting out of my own civic duty and had no thought that I would ever be treated as a co-defendant — rather, as a cooperating witness,” McLeod said. “I maintain that I am innocent of murder and elect to say that the only part I had in these events was what I did under the duress at the demands of an armed person.”

McLeod added that the events of Sept. 25, 2021, left him “traumatized” and that he hoped Ravassipour would consider his lack of criminal history in imposing a sentence in his murder case.

McLeod closed by expressing sympathy for Stitt’s family, who elected not to speak during the sentencing hearing.

“I did not know him,” and had nothing to gain by taking anything from Stitt, McLeod said.

McLeod concluded his remarks by saying “I’m sorry” to Stitt’s family. 

McLeod acknowledged his parents, Melody and Jason McLeod, prior to the hearing and got a chance to hug them afterwards. Both parents testified at trial, telling the jury their children told them they witnessed Scofield allegedly beating Stitt. The elder McLeods then told Dylan and Austin to call police.

Jason McLeod said in an interview that when he hugged his son following Monday’s sentencing hearing, he told him, “I love him” and he was “going to keep fighting” the case to appeal. 

The elder McLeod described Austin as “a very loving kid” who was not exposed to drugs on the reservation in Montana, where the McLeods are from.

But, Jason McLeod said, he believes his son was on drugs the morning of Sept. 25, 2021.

“They were victims,” Jason McLeod said, referring to his sons. 

He said McLeod was “so high” the morning of the killing that he doesn’t even remember the sequence of events that day.

If it weren’t for McLeod’s call to 911, Jason believes “a murderer” would still be on the loose. 

District Attorney Beth Heckert, who prosecuted McLeod, remarked after the sentencing hearing that, “I’m happy we got some justice for the victim in this case.”

She noted that the Stitt family declined to speak at Monday’s hearing because they are “still processing” what happened during the trial and its outcome.

Heckert and her prosecution team are now looking ahead to Dylan McLeod’s trial in August and Scofield’s in October. 

“Even though they’re all inter-related, we have to look at them separately,” Heckert said. “I don’t know that we’d go into the other cases with any extra confidence.”