Former Levittown Resident Gets Life In Prison For Violently Killing Girlfriend

A former Levittown resident with a history of mental illness and domestic violence was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison Thursday in Doylestown.

Bucks County Judge Judge Rea Boylan made her decision after a trial that included three days of testimony. During Thursday’s proceedings, she sentenced Andrew Thomas Messner, 30, formerly of Bristol Township’s Levittown section, to prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

In May, Messner pleaded guilty to a general charge of homicide.

Police arrested Messner last September after they learned he killed 25-year-old Dilara Ozen, his girlfriend, at the Berkeley Trace Apartments on Bensalem Boulevard. Ozen’s mother found her dead inside apartment 106 after her mother went to check on her.

Ozen’s mother testified in court that Messner was found asleep in the apartment’s bedroom while his girlfriend’s lifeless body laid nearby. “You murdered my daughter! You murdered my daughter!” she testified that she yelled before calling authorities.

Authorities said Messner pulled Ozen through the apartment after a fight that started in the living room and slashed her neck in the bathtub because he knew it would cause a large amount of blood to spill. Crime scene evidence showed signs that Messner had cleaned up blood that sprayed throughout the bathroom during the murder.

“This was a knock-down, drag-out fight to the death,” Assistant District Attorney AJ Garabedian said. “Ms. Ozen lost.”

An examination of Ozen’s body revealed she may have been struck in the face before the knife attack.

The kitchen knife Messner used to murder his girlfriend was found between a wall and the washing machine in the apartment.

Garabedian said Messner tried to dispose of bloody clothing following the murder. He even went to a drug store and purchased sleeping pills.

Further evidence showed that Messner searched the internet after Ozen’s death for porn and for more information about committing suicide with sleeping pills.

Defense attorney Craig Penglase argued that Messner’s history of mental illness made it impossible for him to reach the level required for a first-degree homicide conviction.

A psychiatrist brought to testify by Penglase said that Messner, who had admitted to abusing drugs and alcohol, was “psychotic at the time (of the murder) and in a blackout.”

Garabedian also pointed to a history of domestic violence committed by Messner against Ozen. He pleaded guilty to assaulting her four months before the murder in a Lower Makefield apartment parking lot.

Communications between Messner and Ozen had showed the couple had fought in the past about his porn habit and his drinking.

As LevittownNow.com first reported last year, Lower Makefield police alleged that Messner assaulted Ozen a few months before the murder in the 1300 block of Polo Run Drive. Police said they found Ozen with red marks on her face, scratches on her body and blood stains on her shirt. The 25-year-old told them she had an argument with Messner that led to a physical fight which involved the then-Levittown resident choking her, striking her, jumping on her and throwing her to the ground.

Boylan also sentenced Messner to pay $16,500 in restitution to Ozen’s family.