A northwestern Minnesota woman was sentenced to the maximum sentence for strapping her boyfriend by the neck to his own SUV and dragging him from a gravel driveway to his death along a country road.

Jessica M. Kilde, 33, of Ogema, will serve about 20 years in prison, with another 10 on supervised release, for the murder last summer of Richard A. Baity, 41. Her sentence Monday in Becker County District Court also calls for her to make restitution to the family of nearly $7,000.

Kilde, who pleaded guilty in January to second-degree intentional murder in the Aug. 15 death, said in court Monday that she doesn't understand what she did and called Baity "a great man."

Sheriff's deputies found Baity's body on the road about 50 yards from his driveway along E. 370th Street in Maple Grove Township.

Kilde told authorities that she and Baity had a dispute at his home that night, but it was nothing serious.

The criminal complaint noted that the two had been drinking and smoking methamphetamine at the home earlier in the day.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482