AUBURN — A Leeds farmer has been sent to prison for 55 years for the 2023 shooting death of a Windham man whose body was found nearly a year later in a New Hampshire sandpit.

Joseph Chute, 33, was sentenced Tuesday in Androscoggin County Superior Court. He was convicted of the murder in March.

Prosecutors said Chute shot 34-year-old Alex Jackson in the head in the spring of 2023 before disposing of his body in a barrel and taking it to New Hampshire.

Chute’s lawyers had argued for a 30-year sentence while the Attorney General’s Office asked that Chute be sent to prison for 70 years.

Chute was sentenced by Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Jennifer Archer, bringing to a close a case that began as a missing person report.

Jackson had last been seen in the Turner area and was reported missing by his family in mid-May of 2023.

The family said Jackson regularly traveled back roads in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, hauling items for farmers with his flatbed trailer.

At the time Jackson went missing, according to the investigation, Chute owed him money for construction equipment.

Jackson’s remains were not found for nearly a year. By then, Chute was already in jail, suspected of the killing.

In their investigation, police got information from Chute’s former girlfriend, who described how she and Chute drove around Maine and New Hampshire searching for a place to dispose of Jackson’s body.

The former girlfriend was not charged in the case and was granted immunity from prosecution as a key witness in the case.

Jackson’s body, according to court records, had been stuffed inside a 55-gallon drum Chute procured from his farm shortly after shooting and killing Jackson.

A witness told police Chute had hacked up Jackson’s belongings and disposed of them, leaving no trace of the dead man.

As part of their investigation, Maine State Police reviewed data from the cellphones of Chute and his girlfriend on May 14, 2023. They also spoke to several witnesses who told investigators Chute had confessed to them that he had shot Jackson in the head at his farm.

Police believe that before he was killed, Jackson was about to travel to northern Vermont with his dog, Hazel, who was found wandering in North Yarmouth three days after Jackson disappeared.

The dog was returned to Jackson’s family.