Press Release
The Office of State Attorney Glenn Hess announces that on January 15, 2020, Dakota Mitchell Lavanway entered a no contest plea to Manslaughter With A Deadly Weapon in Calhoun County Circuit Court. Judge Shonna Gay accepted the plea and sentenced Lavanway to 20 years in the Department of Corrections.
On January 17, 2019, Lavanway got into a physical altercation near the Mossy Pond area in Calhoun County with Gerald Becker, 62 of New Hampshire. Lavanway, 21, beat the victim down and then stabbed him. The victim later died at the hospital. The case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney William Wright.