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A plea deal will send an Arkansas farmer accused of raping and killing a 25-year-old woman to life in prison.
Quake Lewellyn pleaded guilty on Friday to killing Sydney Sutherland in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, Fox affiliate KLRT-TV reported. He will never be eligible for parole, the outlet said.
Supporters of the Sutherland family filled a Newport courtroom, where proceedings were moved after a judge ruled the case had received too much publicity to be heard in Jackson County.
Quake Lewellyn pleaded guilty on Friday to killing Sydney Sutherland.
(Jackson County Emergency Management and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office)
Sutherland, a nurse, was jogging on Jackson County Road 41 when she was attacked. Lewellyn told authorities he was driving when he saw her. He said he made a U-turn with his truck after passing it, but couldn’t see it anymore, which he attributed to the dust from the gravel road.
Lewellyn said he thought he hit Sutherland with his truck and believed her dead before taking her body to a paddy field where he dug a hole, stripped her clothes “and tried to play with it a bit. she”. His lawyers told him not to give details when investigators pressed him.
In a victim impact statement, Sutherland’s mother, Maggy Sutherland, said: “She was not yours to take.”
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“Satan is real,” she said. “The hands you squeezed me with are the same hands you killed her with.”
Yael Halon of Fox News contributed to this report.
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