A judge had jailed a mother for 18 years for hiring a hitman to kill her son-in-law - despite her daughter begging for leniency.
Jacqueline Ray claimed she feared for her daughter Umeko's life because she was being abused at the hands of husband Leon Bauchum.
The 51-year-old, of Gig Harbor, Washington, told homicide detectives that she had paid assassin Luis Barker $12,000 to murder Mr Bauchum.
Bauchum, 33, was beaten and shot before being dumped in a ditch near Gig Harbor. His hands and feet were bound with duct tape and there was tape over his eyes.
'My mother is not an evil person,' Umeko Bauchum told Judge Stanley Rumbaugh during her mother’s sentencing hearing, according to Kiro7 TV. She asked for the lowest possible sentence for her mother.
Jailed: Jacqueline Ray, pictured, was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison
'She was really trying to protect myself and my children. My mother did not do what she did because she had any hate or didn’t want me to be with Leon.'
Ray's husband and former pastor also pleaded with the Pierce County Judge for mercy, pointing to her dacades of volunteering in her local community.
'I ask for mercy, your honor. I ask for grace,' said the Rev. Edmond Holle Plaehn, who was Ray’s pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Tacoma, according to the Yakima Herald. 'I ask for the lightest sentence possible.'
During the court hearing, Ray said she was sorry for the crime.
'It is my hope with my sentencing here today, with God’s mercy, everyone would someday forgive me.'
Prosecutors claimed she paid hitman Luis Barker $12,000 to carry out the murder. She then lured Baucham to her house, where Barker was waiting, the judge was told.
Murdered: The body of Leon Bauchum, left, was found bound with bullet wound in a ditch outside Gig Harbor, Washington
The marriage between Leon Bauchum, left, and Jacqueline Ray's daughter, Umeko, right, was said to have been tempestuous
He shot Baucham to death before dumping his body in a remote area near her house.
Ray had her sentence reduced because she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second degree murder.
Assassin Luis Barker also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment