|
 Michael Spell, 25, of Parachute, Colorado, pleaded guilty in
October to deliberate homicide in the strangling death of math
instructor Sherry Arnold, legal documents showed. Under a deal with
prosecutors, an attempted kidnapping charge was dropped.
The agreement came after several court hearings that sought to
determine Spell's competence, with defense attorneys claiming he was
unfit to stand trial because of mental deficiencies.
Arnold, 43, vanished in January 2012 while on a predawn run in her
rural hometown of Sidney, where at the time authorities were noting
a sharp increase in population and crime tied to an oil boom
spanning northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota.
 Spell later told police he and Lester Waters, a friend from
Parachute, had smoked crack cocaine while driving through Sidney to
oilfield jobs in Williston, North Dakota, when Arnold jogged by and
Waters ordered him to pull her into their car.
Spell told investigators Waters "choked her out" in the back seat,
but prosecutors accused Spell of strangling the teacher.
Arnold "lay dead inside the vehicle and under a blanket" while the
men drove to Williston, where they disposed of her clothing in a
dumpster and bought a shovel to bury the body in a shallow grave
outside town, a Montana prosecutor said in a sworn statement.
[to top of second column] |
Spell apologized for his actions during Friday's sentencing hearing
before Judge Richard Simonton in Sidney, a court official said. His
defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Waters was sentenced by a Montana judge in December to 80 years in
prison for his role in Arnold's death, state Department of
Corrections records show.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Daniel
Wallis and Eric Beech)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
