Nancy Daugherty’s killer sentenced to life behind bars for 1986 murder

Convicted for two counts of First-Degree Murder while Committing Criminal sexual Conduct in the First Degree in August, Michael Allen Carbo, Jr., 54, was sentenced on Friday afternoon for the 1986 rape and murder of Nancy Daugherty. 

The sentencing trial began with Defense Attorney J.D. Schmid motioning for a new trial, with the belief that there was evidence of an alternate perpetrator that should have been presented to the jury. 

“When the court makes mistakes, sometimes the consequences can be drastically severe,” said Schmid.

The exclusion of this evidence was debated throughout the trial. 

Judge Robert C. Friday stood by the court’s decision, saying, “the court must focus on the evidence, not on the assertions of the defense council.”

Judge Friday denied the motion for a new trial and allowed the opportunity for victim impact statements to be read.

“The death of my mother has impacted the majority of my life as she has been gone for far longer than she has been with me,” said Nancy Daugherty’s daughter Gina Haggard.  “There’s a question of ‘Why? Why did someone kill her?’, and that question will never be answered, and that will stay with me forever.”

Haggard recalled fond memories of her mother and described the milestones missed after her mother’s death.  A high schooler in 1986, Haggard went to college under deep depression, uncertainty, and caution towards strangers.

“At some point, fear came into my life as well that someone rapes and kills your mom. You know that it can happen to you or even me,” said Haggard. “I had to look at everyone with distrust, for self-preservation.”

Haggard read a statement from her brother, Jason Larsen. 

“Mike Carbo deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life. He deserves everything he gets,” said Larsen. “I will forget about him because he’s nothing to me. When he’s sitting in prison, I will be living my life to the fullest, enjoying the simple things and all the freedoms that he no longer has. I will not waste any more time on him.”

Nancy’s brother also spoke.

“Being a father, I cannot imagine what it was like for my parents to lose a child with such a despicable evil the way my mom and dad both went to their graves, not knowing who killed their daughter,” he said. “Carbo is a liar, you took the life of an innocent person. Your life is a waste of living it and children never taking responsibility for what he did to me. A person with no conscience could do that. Instead, he says, he blacked out, and doesn’t remember what he did. He is a disgrace to the human race.”

Carbo spoke on his own behalf, saying that he never went hunting because he could not bring himself to kill an animal. He spoke about his drinking, referring to himself as a “happy drunk.”

“I found that drinking gave me the ability to talk to girls more. I found that older women were easier to talk to, and I ended up with them some nights,” said Carbo. “I did not kill Nancy. I obviously had sex with her, but I do not remember.”

Carbo was sentenced to life in prison and may be eligible for parole in 17 years. He will have credit for the time served behind bars since his arrest in 2020.