Couple pleads guilty to kidnaping, raping girl
Source: Agencies |
April 30, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A CONVICTED sex offender and his wife are likely to spend the rest of their lives in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping and raping a girl who gave birth to two daughters while being held for 18 years in a hidden compound in the couple's California backyard.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido admitted abducting Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive in backyard tents and sheds under a hastily negotiated deal with prosecutors that was motivated, in part, by a mutual desire to keep the now-grown victim and her children from having to testify at a trial.
"I'm relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family," Dugard, 30, said in a statement released by her spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer.
Phillip Garrido, 60, faces a maximum sentence of 431 years to life in prison after entering guilty pleas to 14 kidnapping and sexual assault charges, including six counts of rape and seven counts of committing lewd acts captured on video.
His wife, Nancy Garrido, 55, who originally faced the same charges as her husband and a sentence of 181 years to life, pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of rape. She faces a maximum sentence of 36 years to life.
Authorities said Dugard was grabbed by Nancy Garrido off her family's South Lake Tahoe street and forced into a car driven by Phillip Garrido on June 10, 1991, as her stepfather watched her walk to the school bus stop. Her reappearance 18 years, four months and 16 days later came about almost as a fluke as Garrido sought to promote the religious group he founded called God's Desire.
Both defendants waived their right to appeal and were scheduled to be sentenced on June 2. Each is eligible for parole, but the lengths of their respective sentences makes it doubtful, lawyers on both sides said.
El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson credited Dugard's willingness to relive her experience in court if necessary with giving his office the pressure he needed to produce the pleas.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido admitted abducting Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive in backyard tents and sheds under a hastily negotiated deal with prosecutors that was motivated, in part, by a mutual desire to keep the now-grown victim and her children from having to testify at a trial.
"I'm relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family," Dugard, 30, said in a statement released by her spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer.
Phillip Garrido, 60, faces a maximum sentence of 431 years to life in prison after entering guilty pleas to 14 kidnapping and sexual assault charges, including six counts of rape and seven counts of committing lewd acts captured on video.
His wife, Nancy Garrido, 55, who originally faced the same charges as her husband and a sentence of 181 years to life, pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of rape. She faces a maximum sentence of 36 years to life.
Authorities said Dugard was grabbed by Nancy Garrido off her family's South Lake Tahoe street and forced into a car driven by Phillip Garrido on June 10, 1991, as her stepfather watched her walk to the school bus stop. Her reappearance 18 years, four months and 16 days later came about almost as a fluke as Garrido sought to promote the religious group he founded called God's Desire.
Both defendants waived their right to appeal and were scheduled to be sentenced on June 2. Each is eligible for parole, but the lengths of their respective sentences makes it doubtful, lawyers on both sides said.
El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson credited Dugard's willingness to relive her experience in court if necessary with giving his office the pressure he needed to produce the pleas.
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