COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jason Palmer was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, for the killing of Rachel Prince, a 46-year-old mother of two and art teacher at Marion Franklin High School. A jury found Palmer, 38, guilty of two counts of murder, strangulation and domestic violence in Prince’s 2025 death. He and Prince were in a relationship. Columbus police responded to an apartment on Cobblestone Drive shortly after 1:20 p.m. on July 13, 2025, and found Prince unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The Franklin County coroner’s office ruled her death a homicide. According to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, Palmer strangled Prince the night before, moved her body to a bedroom and left it on the floor. He left the apartment the next morning. Prince was found by her mother and Palmer’s sister. Palmer was arrested three days later and initially held on a $10 million bond. Court records show Palmer had faced domestic violence-related cases involving Prince before her death. In a 2023 case, he was charged with domestic violence, aggravated menacing and assault; the domestic violence and assault charges were dismissed, and he received 180 days in jail and two years of community control on the remaining charge. In a separate 2024 case, a strangulation charge was dismissed. Palmer was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 18 months of community control for aggravated menacing. That supervision was set to end in May 2025, about two months before Prince was killed. A post-conviction no-contact order was canceled May 14, 2025, according to court records. Prince’s sister-in-law, Jennifer Belemu, said she had urged a judge to keep Palmer away from Prince. “I begged the judge to keep him,” Belemu said after Prince’s death. “This could have been prevented.” Prince taught art at Marion Franklin High School and was a mother of two. The Ohio Domestic Violence Network offers resources for people experiencing domestic violence at odvn.org.