PLACERVILLE, California (AP) _ A convicted sex offender and his wife pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and raping a California girl in a surprise plea deal that will keep the now-grown victim and the two daughters she gave birth to during her 18 years of captivity from having to testify at a trial.
Under the hastily negotiated agreement, Phillip and Nancy Garrido are likely to spend the rest of their lives in prison after abducting Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and keeping her in a backyard compound of tents and sheds.
``I'm relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family,'' Dugard 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.
``Obviously you don't like to plead your client guilty to a life sentence, but that's the best I could get and that's what she's willing to do,'' Nancy Garrido's defense lawyer Stephen Tapson said. ``Unfortunately, it's going to probably be in a casket'' when she leaves prison.
El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson credited the 30-year-old Dugard's willingness to relive her harrowing experience in court if necessary with producing the pleas.
When he spoke to Dugard on Wednesday, ``she expressed again, she was ready, willing and able, if called, to testify,'' Pierson said. ``But I think there's also, as a mother, the practical reality of it, should her children be called and drug into all of this, was something that I don't think any mother in her right mind would want to see happen.''
Both defendants waived their right to appeal and were scheduled to be sentenced on June 2.
Plea discussions in the case had been under way since January, but a possible deal broke down and the Garridos pleaded not guilty earlier this month after prosecutors refused to drop any of the charges against Nancy Garrido.
The negotiations resumed this week when the district attorney offered Nancy Garrido a maximum sentence of 11 years for kidnapping and 25 years to life for rape, according to Deputy Public Defender Susan Gellman, who represents Phillip Garrido.
``It really was a numbers game, so when there even is a theoretical possibility of Nancy someday being released, that is appealing'' to her husband, Gellman said.
Because of his 1977 conviction for raping and kidnapping a Reno woman, Phillip Garrido already was likely to spend the rest of his life in prison for violating parole if he were convicted of any of the charges in the Dugard case, Gellman said.
He also was eager to spare Dugard and their daughters from having to testify and wanted to accept responsibility for his crimes ``to let the world know he changed his behavior,'' Gellman said, noting the indictment states that none of the rapes were committed after 1997.
``While nobody wants to hear that part of his message, and it's understandable given the enormity of the charges, that's why he did not want to go to trial in this case,'' she said.
Gellman said the deal was finalized Wednesday.
Nancy Garrido feels terrible about what happened to Dugard, her lawyer Tapson said.
``She obviously committed a serious wrong, but in her view now, she's made peace with God and wants to get on with life, what's left of it,'' he said. ``From the get-go she said, `just do the best you can, Mr. Tapson, because I don't want to put Jaycee and the kids through a trial.'''
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.
The FBI, police and volunteers searched in vain for the pretty blonde girl who was last seen wearing a pink wind breaker and pink stretch pants.
But they never came close to finding her, even though Dugard's stepfather gave an accurate description of the couple's car and of Nancy Garrido, and despite the fact that Phillip Garrido was being monitored by federal and state parole agents because of his rape conviction.
Dugard's reappearance 18 years, four months and 16 days later came about almost as a fluke.
In the days before his arrest, Phillip Garrido had become more determined to tell people about the religious group he founded called God's Desire and a box he had built that he believed allowed him to speak with God. During that time, he delivered a handwritten screed called ``Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed'' to the FBI's San Francisco office.
But it was a visit to the University of California, Berkeley, that same day that caused his ragged family to unravel. He showed up at campus with his daughters with Dugard in tow, seeking a permit for a religious event.
Campus police officers became suspicious, and after running a background check realized he had been convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in Reno in 1977.
The Berkeley officers contacted Garrido's parole officer, who was surprised to hear that he had young daughters and ordered him to come in for a meeting. Garrido complied and for a still unknown reason brought his wife, the girls and Dugard.
Dugard tried to conceal her identity, initially telling authorities she was hiding from an abusive husband in Minnesota and giving her name as Alyssa.
Wary investigators separated her from Phillip Garrido, who had described Dugard and the two girls as his nieces, and under further questioning he admitted kidnapping ``Alyssa'' and Dugard disclosed her identity, authorities said.
She was reunited with her mother the next day and has remained in Northern California with her and her daughters, now 13 and 16. She requested privacy and has not attended any of the court hearings. She is writing her memoirs, which are scheduled to be published in September.
Dugard's case revealed problems with California's system for monitoring convicted sex offenders after it was determined parole agents had missed numerous clues and chances to find her.
She received a $20 million settlement under which the state acknowledged repeated mistakes were made by parole agents responsible for monitoring Phillip Garrido. California has since increased monitoring of sex offenders.
The Associated Press as a matter of policy avoids identifying victims of sexual abuse by name in its news reports
However, Dugard's disappearance had been known and reported for nearly two decades, making impossible any effort to shield her identity when she resurfaced.
<한글 요약>
18년동안 여아 감금, 성폭행 한 부부 유죄 인정
한 성범죄자와 그의 아내는 18년전 한 여자아이를 납치한 후 지금까지 감금하고, 성폭행한 혐의를 28일 목요일에 인정했다.
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성범죄자 필립가리도는 아내와 함께 20년간 제이시 두가드를 납치하고 감금한 것을 인정했다. (AP) |
가리도 부부는 1991년 제이시 두가드를 납치하여 18년동안 자신의 집 뒤뜰에 있는 텐트와 오두막에 감금했고, 두가드가 낳은 두 딸도 숨겼다고 한다.
60세인 필립 가리도는 14번의 납치와 성폭행 혐의로 유죄를 선고 받고 무기징역 최대 431년에 직면하게 되었다. 그의 아내 55세 낸시 가리도는 남편과 똑같은 혐의로 첫 재판에서 무기징역 181년을 선고 받았고, 이번에 납치와 강간 혐의로 최장 무기징역 36년을 선고 받았다.
낸시 가리도측 변호사는 자신이 할 수 있는 데까지는 노력했고, 가리도 본인도 (형량을) 인정하고 있다고 말하면서 그녀가 감옥을 떠나는 날을 관 안에서 맞게 될 것이라고 말했다.
필립 가리도는 이미 1997년에 한 여성을 성폭행하고 납치한 혐의가 있으며 이번 두가드 사건에서도 유죄를 선고받으면 가석방 중 범죄를 저지른 혐의로 평생을 감옥에서 살 가능성이 높다.
당시 11세였던 두가드는 1991년 6월 10일 스쿨버스를 타러 가던 중 낸시 가리도에 의해 납치되었다. 경찰과 FBI는 금발머리 소녀 두가드를 찾아 헤맸지만 결국 찾지못했다.
그리고 두가드는 18년 4개월 16일 후 다시 세상에 나타나게 되었다.
필립 가리도는 그가 만든 종교조직을 사람들에게 말할 결심으로 캘리포니아 대학에 두가드와 그의 두 딸과 함께 나타났고 이 장면을 본 경찰이 수상하게 여겨 가리도를 체포했다.
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2009년 10월 피플매거진 커버에 나온 30세 제이시 두가드 (AP) |
