Inset: Jonah Poole (Anne Arundel County Police Department). Background: The Tropic Bay Water Gardens where Poole murdered his former boss in Davidsonville, Md. (Google Maps).
A Maryland teenager will spend decades behind bars for beating, kidnapping and brutally killing his former boss in a truck fire.
In March, Jonah Poole, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in the first degree for the death of 67-year-old Edward Koza, a naturalist who ran a garden center and koi pond.
On Friday, Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Cathleen Vitale sentenced the defendant to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The underlying incident occurred in May 2025, at the Tropic Bay Water Gardens in Davidsonville – a small, semi-rural, unincorporated community located some 15 miles southwest of Annapolis.
But the locus of the grim violence dates back weeks before.
The victim previously reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash had been stolen from his house. Soon enough, a then-current employee at the Water Gardens told investigators that Koza suspected Poole, a former employee, of being the burglar, according to The Baltimore Banner.
On May 24, 2025, Koza's body was found inside a burning truck in the parking lot of the business on West Central Avenue. The victim's arms, hands, and mouth were bound with duct tape in his own vehicle.
Inside, police found obvious signs of a struggle, like items broken and knocked over, according to Baltimore-based ABC affiliate WMAR.
Investigators noted the presence of a knife and a bloody koi rock as well as other evidence, according to local NBC affiliate WBAL.
Surveillance footage from a nearby BP gas station showed a man and a woman pulling up to the parking lot in Koza's truck before it was wholly engulfed in flames. In another video, which was captured on Poole's own cellphone, the defendant is seen pouring gas into the truck, tossing the empty gas can inside the vehicle, then lighting paper towels hanging from the driver's side windows.
The victim was also beaten before being burned alive.
Koza suffered bruises around his eyes, a fractured nose, and "severe thermal injuries," Assistant State's Attorney Marot Williamson said in comments reported by the Banner.
Also implicated in the savage killing was Poole's girlfriend, Kylee Alyssa Dakes, 19. In January, Judge Vitale ruled the pair should be tried together – despite the woman's defense team claiming the burglary had nothing to do with her, according to the Banner. Since Poole took a plea deal, however, the couple's cases were separated.
The pair went back to Dakes' home after the killing and exchanged messages on Snapchat, according to law enforcement. In one such message, Poole wrote that "it went so well."
During his sentencing, the judge said she would have sentenced the convicted killer to life without parole but for the plea deal; she also said she looked for any reason not to issue a life sentence.
"Young man, I myself have had restless nights over this case," Vitale told the defendant.
The judge said she would recommend a treatment-focused maximum security prison due to Poole's relatively young age.
"He was also ordered to forfeit approximately $215,000 stolen from the victim, and a $15,000 truck purchased with additional stolen funds to the victim's estate," the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Poole gave an allocution during Friday's hearing.
"I think I deserve whatever I get," he said. "I hope God can forgive me, because I don't think I deserve it from anyone else."
Dakes has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is slated to begin in December.
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