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Girl pleads no contest in 2 hatchet slayings
Friday, February 4, 2000
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- A 16-year-old Sand Creek girl changed her plea yesterday from innocent to no contest in the hatchet slaying of her mother and half-brother.
Jessica Tibbetts pleaded to two counts each of aggravated murder and criminal conspiracy.
Judge Rodger Isaacson set Monday for the sentencing in Klamath County Circuit Court.
A negotiated agreement reached between Tibbetts and prosecutors Ed Caleb and Marci Adkisson will require Tibbetts to serve 30 years. Because Tibbetts is a juvenile, state law mandates a review after 15 years to determine if the sentence should be shortened.
"The reason we agreed to the negotiated sentence was the age of the accused, which we felt was a mitigating factor," said Caleb, the Klamath County district attorney.
Her co-defendant, 25-year-old Raymond Michael Eddings, will be offered the negotiated agreement, Caleb said.
Eddings' jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 15 on the same counts.
She and Eddings are accused of killing her mother, Bennie Jo Tibbetts, 43, and half-brother, Billy Ray Tower, 17, on April 27, 1998.
They are alleged to have poured gasoline on the victims and set them on fire.
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