Jaycee Dugard (before her abduction) and Phillip Garrido
Nick Ut/AP; El Dorado County Sheriffs Office/Reuters/AP
Having been found competent to stand trial, Garrido, 60, has little recourse to avoid being convicted, so he is sparing Jaycee and their daughters from having to testify against him, says Stephen Tapson, the attorney for Phillip's wife, Nancy Garrido, 55.
"He wants to spare Jaycee from testifying and he's sorry for his crimes," Tapson says.
He says the repeat sex offender is planning to plead guilty to 16 of the 18 charges in a recent indictment. These include kidnapping, forcible rape, lewd acts on a child and false imprisonment.
Phillip Garrido's attorney, Susan Gellman, had no immediate comment. El Dorado County, Calif., District Attorney Vern Pierson declined to comment.
Tapson says it is unclear whether Garrido will be sentenced as soon as Thursday. He says there's a lot of math involved ? Garrido is looking at more than 500 years to life ? and the judge wants to calculate correctly and not provide Garrido grounds for appeal.
"It's a numerical nightmare," Tapson says.
Equally unclear is how things will play out for Tapson's client, who faces many of the same charges. Tapson says that, like Jaycee, Nancy Garrido was also controlled and manipulated by her husband, and he'd like to negotiate a sentence with the possibility of parole, something Pierson's office has resisted.Absent any such deal, Nancy Garrido could go to trial later this year, with her husband testifying as a star defense witness who will say, "It's all my fault and I coerced her," Tapson says, adding, "He loves her and he wants to do what he can to help her."
Source: http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/WNe57ag6v-M/0,,20479299,00.html
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