Are you still close to any friends from your childhood? If you weren’t and one reached out to you, would you trust them?
The wife—a military wife—in this true-crime case and her husband lived on an army base. At the time of the attack, her husband was on a deployment to South Korea.
Her childhood friend, whom she hadn't seen for some time, did a bad, bad thing.
I’m going to assume that the wife gave permission for the childhood friend to enter the base (it’s the only way he could have been at her house). Her childhood friend also held the title of a felon on supervised release after an 8-year imprisonment for armed robbery. In the early morning, as she slept, the childhood friend shot and killed the wife then fled in her vehicle.
The wife killer went on the run, later captured in another state. Prior to his capture, one of his friends, also a felon, took charge of the weapon. An acquaintance agreed to set the victim’s car on fire. Those two met at a half-way house while they were both serving supervised release.
After his capture, he pleaded guilty to Premeditated Murder and Possession of a Firearm. The judge sentenced him to 58-years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Based on his age and the fact that there is no early release in the federal system, his sentence is essentially a life sentence.
Worth Mentioning: Law enforcement apprehended the acquaintance who torched the victim’s car. He pleaded guilty to Use of Fire in the Commission of a Federal Felony. The judge sentenced him to 10-years in prison, to pay more than $26,000 in restitution, and three years of supervised released after serving his sentence.
Law enforcement also apprehended the friend who had taken the weapon used in the crime. He pleaded guilty to Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. The judge sentenced him to 45-months in prison.
Be sure to email me if you hear of a true-crime you think would be good in a book. I’ll research it, share it and possibly use it one of my novels.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Savannah Morning News