FOX56 reported Phillip Walters was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Haley Lorenzen.

The life-without-parole term is what FOX56 and WNEP both reported from Friday's hearing. The extra months, the merger of the third-degree count, the fines, and the restitution figure are FOX56. The appeal plan, and the fact that the 2020 sentence was the same life term, are WNEP. A plan to appeal is not a brief already filed.

FOX56 reported Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, that Phillip Walters was sentenced in Wyoming County to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of Haley Lorenzen. The station reported he also received consecutive sentences of 24 to 120 months for strangulation and one to 24 months for abuse of a corpse, for a combined term of life plus 25 to 144 months, with credit for 2,093 days served. FOX56 reported the court merged a third-degree murder charge with the first-degree murder charge. The station reported he was ordered to pay $80,000 in fines, court costs and $8,570.23 in restitution to the Victim Compensation Assistance Program. District Attorney Peters told FOX56, "No punishment can ever bring back Haley Lorenzen," and, "But the finality of today's sentence will hopefully allow her family to begin the healing process again." FOX56 did not name the judge who imposed the sentence. Friday's term is the sentence the station reported.

WNEP reported the hearing was in Tunkhannock and that Walters received life without parole after a Wyoming County murder retrial. The station reported he received this sentence after a first trial in 2020, and that he was granted a new trial after it was determined a piece of evidence shown in that first trial should not have been used. WNEP reported he was convicted in 2020 and again in 2026 of the murder of his girlfriend, Haley Lorenzen. After Friday's hearing, WNEP reported, he maintained his innocence and said he plans to appeal again. District Attorney Joe Peters, who WNEP reported was not the district attorney during the first trial, said his office is prepared to fight the appeal if Walters files one. What he told reporters he plans to file is not a notice already on a docket.

WNEP reported Lorenzen's family traveled from Oregon, and that her younger sister, Sara Hills, told him, "She was the best thing that happened in your life and you destroyed her." The station reported Lorenzen moved to Wyoming County in 2018 to be with Walters, that the case was a missing-person investigation for about six months, and that her body was found in the Susquehanna River in July 2019. WNEP reported both trials turned on Gabel Bell, another woman Walters was seeing, who told jurors she saw him throw Lorenzen's body into the river and who was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony. Lorenzen's mother, Deanna Hills, told WNEP that Bell should serve time. What Bell said from the witness stand is testimony.

The Wyoming County Press Examiner reported that on Sept. 28, 2026, a jury of 10 women and two men convicted Phillip D. Walters, 39, of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, strangulation and abuse of a corpse after a seven-day retrial. The Examiner reported Senior Judge Thomas A. James read that verdict and polled the jury, and that no sentencing date was set that day. The paper reported Walters had been convicted in October 2020 and sentenced to life before the state Supreme Court vacated the conviction and ordered him to stand trial again. WNEP's verdict story reported Lorenzen was 24, spelled his first name Philip in the opening line and Phillip after that, and reported the jury found him guilty of strangling her a few days after Christmas in 2018. The Examiner reported prosecutors alleged he killed her at his Falls Township home on Dec. 30, 2018, and dumped her body from the Falls Bridge into the Susquehanna, and that her remains were found near Plymouth in Luzerne County in July 2019. The Examiner reported defense attorney Bernard Brown argued Bell might have killed Lorenzen, and that Bell testified she helped remove the body from the home and dump it. WNEP's verdict story spelled the lawyer Bernie Brown. The Examiner reported Walters did not testify. Those are the trial accounts. Friday's hearing is where FOX56 says the court imposed the term. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.