Killer of 18-year-old Brittany Clardy gets 40-year sentence

The killer of 18-year-old Brittany Clardy showed little remorse this week as he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Alberto Palmer, 25, will serve at least two-thirds of the sentence. He will also serve at least 30 years of a life sentence with a chance of parole for killing 24-year-old Klaressa Cook. The sentences are consecutive, not concurrent.

Clardy's bloody, frozen body was found in a car at a Columbia Heights impound lot in February 2013, three months before Cook's was found in a vehicle at a Minneapolis lot. Both vehicles had been towed from Brooklyn Park. He also brutally beat and raped three other women in Georgia.

Both sentences were part of a plea agreement Palmer made in August.

The Anoka County courtroom was filled Thursday with Clardy's family and friends.

"We are relieved and glad that the criminal case is over," said Paul Young, head of the criminal division for the county attorney's office. "He got a lengthy sentence we hope keeps him in prison for the rest of his life."

When Palmer pleaded guilty to Cook's death, he apologized to her family in court. But at Clardy's sentence hearing, he said he disagreed with the representation that he was a monster, Young said. He also talked about sinners, referring to the fact that both Clardy and Cook were involved in prostitution.

"There are few in the community who don't have a sense of right or wrong in them," Young said, referring to Palmer.

DAVID CHANEN