Erin Caffey, 17, gets 2 life terms in family deaths

EMORY, Texas — A teenage girl charged with capital murder for her role in the deaths of her mother and two young brothers agreed to a plea deal that could make her eligible for parole when she's 59, her attorney said.

Erin Caffey, 17, accepted the agreement Friday, said defense attorney William McDowell. She had been scheduled to be tried as an adult next month in Hopkins County.

"I think it was a just sentence," McDowell said. "Everyone is pleased with it."

Authorities said Caffey, her boyfriend and two other co-defendants plotted to kill Caffey's parents because they didn't approve of her boyfriend. Caffey was 16 at the time of the crime.

Police reports said she and Bobbi Gale Johnson waited in a car down the road from Caffey's home in Alba while boyfriend Charlie James Wilkinson, 19, and Charles Allen Waid, 20, went on a shooting and stabbing rampage before setting fire to the house.

Penny Caffey, 37, and her sons Mathew, 13, and Tyler, 8, died in the attack in March. Terry Caffey, 41, was shot five times but escaped from the burning house, saying he recognized Wilkinson shooting him and his wife in their bed, sheriff's officials said.

Caffey has since recovered from his gunshot wounds.

All four defendants were initially charged with three counts of capital murder. Prosecutors had said they didn't plan to seek the death penalty against Erin Caffey.

Wilkinson and Waid also avoided the death penalty in November by pleading guilty for their involvement in the killings. McDowell said both would likely receive life sentences with parole.

Johnson, named as an accomplice who did not use a weapon, was sentenced to 40 years in prison and may be eligible for parole in 20 years, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported Saturday.

Alba is about 60 miles northeast of Dallas.

Comments

[DCCommuter]

If that teen and her boyfriend wanted to be together, here's an idea: RUN AWAY FROM HOME! Now countless lives are ruined or taken. Is it really that hard to run away and not be found?

[justoverit333]

More than likely by age 59 she will have
gone through menopause and cannot
pro-create.

[vote-obama]

this is sad but even more troubling is the fact that after reading such a disturbing article people post funny comments. witness this posters....

"how's this? free automobiles and guns and liquor and crack for everybody"!!! really.

[adamsmith3]

Anytime I wonder whether or not the death penalty is just or not I simply imagine one of my family members being murdered in a cold and pre-meditated fashion and then I wonder why those convicted are allowed to sit on death row for so long. Seems to me we would save more money and put more weight behind the consequence of first-degree murder if those convicted were immediately walked to their deserved punishment.

[pokemon]

A Bull@ costs 50 cents, save the state and the taxpayers the cost of keeping this person healthy and alive for 42 years or more.

[Alex02139]

Death penalty process, including mandatory appeals and death row extra security, cost more than life sentence in gen pop. It's not about money, its about justice. We're not Iran or Hamas, we don't execute teenagers.

[2cute]

i disagree with you because many times, prosecutions, especially in texas, are not about justice. they are about race, class, dirty politics, backdoor agreements and skewed media portrayals. if they were minorities, they'd all have been tried as adults and the two men who shot and killed the mother and two sons would definitely, hands down, gotten the death penalty. i don't know if anyone would have gotten any hope for parole.

i wonder how her father feels about the judgements. he must be torn between the love of his daughter and the horror of this crime. this was a crime, afterall.

[riskybusiness]

If this charming young lady reaches 59 and is paroled I am sure most of you posters will be thrilled to have her in your neighborhood. As for myself, if there was no evidence of abuse of any kind, I would lobby for shooting the lot of them in the head and case closed. I understand many of the positions expressed here but my particular opinion is if there was a rabid animal in your midst, what would you do with it? Ka ka happens and everything is not always the way we want it. Life is often more barbaric than we like to think about. IMHO these kids are rabid animals. To murder your own parents... or to murder someone else's parents in a insane plan .I don't think we can just say "the devil made me do it" and go on.

[texasaggie]

I see a couple of you have a knowledge of Supreme Court decisions similar to Palin's. You may wish to see Roper v Simmons. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion: "When a juvenile offender commits a heinous crime, the State can exact forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties, but the State cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity." There is no death penalty allowed for offenders under 18 anywhere in America. Interestingly enough, this is probably a case, if Palin had known about it, that she could have mentioned as one she didn't agree with.

[Frank-y-Ava]

I don't understand why kill the brothers, especially the 8 year-old he probably didn't even care.

[DavidET]

US is in violation of United Nations Convention on The Rights of The Child (CRC) :

Article 37(a)
".... Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release
shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age"

[shearm]

Your post...

"without possibility of release"

The article...

"that could make her eligible for parole when she's 59"

[pokemon]

What evefr, she knew what she was doing, therefore her physical age has nothing to do with it.

[placidwilbur]

I believe the US filed a reservation to that clause, stating that despite ratifying the convention it reserved the right to try children as adults.

(Please don't think that I'm defending the US here. I think the reservation is horrific. It's just that --- if my memory is correct --- it's not actually in violation as a matter of law.)

[Alex02139]

Did you ever vote for UN representative? The UN is not a democracy; UN resolutions and conventions are irrelevant to the US Constitution. This 17 year old contracted 3 adults to shoot, stab and burn her mother, father and two brothers aged 13 and 8. She planned these murders for weeks: if there was abuse why didn't she just run away like thousands of others? Did the 8- year old abuse her too?

There is something really sickening about people who defend criminals as a matter of principle. These people are the reason liberalism has a bad name in America.

[Halminbar]

Who here has defended the killings? The controversy is over the PUNISHMENT. There was a time in Europe where people convicted of certain crimes were drawn and quartered; that is, their wrists and ankles would be tied to horses, their stomach sliced opened, and then the horses would literally tear the living victim into pieces. Would you have said that those who worked to abolish this punishment were "defending criminals as a matter of policy"?

[jdmba]

I've never heard of someone NOT being put to death in Texas

[txfriend]

Plenty avoid the death penalty.. that is if their White.

[jdmba]

It helps to be blonde, too.

[Jazzcomedian]

Unfortunately she's going to miss her prom. But at least she'll have a chance in prison to think, develop friendships, make something of herself, and ultimately leave it at 59 a much more mature, and aware person. She wouldn't have been able to do that on the outside. Which is why for the next 42 years she's going to be inside.

[Madhyamika]

With the American rehab system she can make friends with other hardened criminals and learn their trades. There are ample opportunities for intimate relationships with the prison guards and inmates. When she is released from prison she will be well equipped to practice the skills acquired from her prison pals.

[aletheiashortwave]

Madhyamika, thank you for silencing this ignorance.

[lunchlady]

I predict both girls will turn up on one of the prison "pen pal" websites. Its interesting and sad to look at those. Many of the women are looking for someone to "help with my legal case." Wonder how many guys get grifted one way or another by responding to those.

[RJII]

lmao. she probably is in jail right now thinking about her neat-o boyfriend and the prom.

[BCubedReg]

Probably, but 42 years inside a cage is a long time to reflect on ones mistakes. It will be interesting to see what she thinks about the time she has wasted after sitting in a cage for 42 years.

[lunchlady]

LOL! Mr. Wonderful avoided the death penalty by agreeing to testify against her. How romantic.

[kensp]

This is eerily similar to a crime that occurred in the small city of Medicine Hat, Alberta two years ago. The last trial just concluded in Calgary in November. In that case the girl was only 12, yes that's right 12, at the time of the murder. Her boyfriend was a pathetic young man of 20 who hung around with children because his own peer group rejected him. He tried to recruit friends to help, but no one would do it, although some of them tried to help him and girl flee after the fact. The killing of her family so they could be together was the 12 year old's idea and the guy was so desperate to hang on to the only girlfriend he ever had he did what she asked. According to his evidence at trial, the girl actually slit her 8 year old brother's throat, although this is far from proven.

[Sparty1]

I have a 14 yr old daughter and she's a very sweet young lady. I know that kids go their own way as they grow up, but I hope the fact that my husband and I talk to her open and honestly that she will keep her head on straight and not fall under the spell of some knucklehead. She's willing to talk with her dad openly about things that are on her mind and he's always there for her. Sometimes, these girls just get so wrapped up in wanting some little boy to like them b/c they don't have a close relationship with their dad. She's also a mama's girl.

I think the parents were obviously correct to have concerns about that boyfriend. Hell, he was too old for her from the get go. They couldn't even have started a relationship in my house. I tell my daughter all the time that whenever she starts to feel that she doesn't want to do what we say, that she can always go live somewhere else. I think the parents should've had that 19 yr old arrested if he wouldn't stop coming around. My husband would've probably whooped his @ss after being asked to leave his baby alone.

[b93950]

Another sad ending to an obvious dysfunctional family.

[Soundofthunder]

I know I'm straying off topic some, but I must raise this point: why is a 16-year-old girl an adult for a capital murder case, because of course she knows right from wrong, but if the same "girl" had sex with a 25-year-old man, she's suddenly a minor, incapable of knowing right from wrong, so the man goes to jail. Just wondering what others think about this. One last point: having sex is a FAR more mature act than murder, which, at any age, is obviously the product of fetal mind.

SOT

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Statutory rape is about the exploitation of minors BY ADULTS -- not whether two minors have sex. It's not about whether a 16 year old knows right from wrong.

[Soundofthunder]

But that's my point. If a 16-year-old is ADULT enough to go to jail for murder, then why isn't the same 16-year-old in theory ADULT enough to decide who to have sex with, regardless of age? All I'm asking for is a little consistency. How old is 16? Are you a child or an adult? It can't be both, nor is it logical to CHANGE THE STANDARD depending on the situation. The law of most state is clear: 18 = Adult. But it most instances of murder, the law will consider a 16-year-old (or younger) an adult. So my question stands: how old is 16?

SOT

[SCurry713]

Because, In Texas we have what is called the "Religious Right" who still think an eye for an eye is a good policy. They have a real problem with any case or situation that can not be boiled down to a very simple answer. It does not matter what the actual events were, just as long as someone "pays for the crime" with jailtime.