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

[Roseberry]

What were they thinking? That they'd somehow get away with it and live happily ever after, at that age? How stupid. Do we have to start teaching classes in high school titled "A gun will not solve your problems" now??? Guess so, at least in Texas.

[adey]

They were stupid. They were children. That's why they couldn't vote or drink---their judgement can't be trusted at that age. That's why we send adults who have sex with kids that age to prison--because they're considered to be too young to make those kinds of decisions. Why should they be expected to have made this decision well?

[Mugzi]

Weren't there warning signs that could have been addressed??? This is so sad...

[cimon]

Guess the family was right about the boyfriend.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Interested in whether Terry (the dad) thinks Erin (the daughter) was put up to it, worthy of forgiveness, itching to blow her away, or what.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

That's what a court-appointed defense attorney gets ya in Texass.

[stayinsouth1981]

That is exactly what I was thinking.

Is the girl a sociopath?

[katedog]

Yep. Just like that s-path Scott Peterson.

[DutchOven]

but she looks so nice in the photo?...

[Betrayed]

If she was a lower class man, black or white, she would be executed. When you get yourself in deep sh#t, it's best to be a female.

[adey]

We women have it so easy.

[Betrayed]

Nobody has it easy. But don't you think that females have it easier in the criminal justice system than males?

[DanmaxKL]

Very scary place is America..

[BannedInBoston]

Yep, especially for a kid growing up in the so-called "heartland­." (I grew up in Oklahoma, came to school here in the Northeast, and stayed. A neighbor back home once asked me, "Well, why would you want to do that?" I'm not sure I have a good answer, lol!)

[Checquoline]

When people leave the midwest for the northeast they never want to go back. It is a different and better world.

[anelder]

I find it difficult but I agree with you. My daughter transferred to Kansas City from the east coast with her job. There is a lot of Mam's and Sirs down there, a fair portion of sweetness and light which doesn't seem to go to deeply. I hear more insults or derrogatory comments ending in the the term "sugar' or "bless your soul.". There's the conversation about others - nasty sounding but ending in "the poor dear". Or the concept as long as you keep saying "I'm a God fearing person so......." you get away with anything.

Obviously there are wonderful people in Kansas City buat the culture is not for me. I much rather deal with those who do not hide their bigotry, lack of charity and kindness behind a facade of manners and church.

And how about the business of two states Missouri and Kansas being so out of sync with eachother that it's an insult if you mistake one for the other. I thought they just disliked us northerners.

[MidwestMomma]

Well it's all according to the company you keep and the places you go. America really isn't any scarier than any place else it's just that we are massive in size and diversity and stuff like this is exploited in the media.

[ScoutandBuckGoodDogs]

If these people played more video games, perhaps they'd have been too lazy to actually go through with it.

[klaatu barada nikto]

If she reincarnates she might just want to think about keeping it to herself.

[LetsGetDumbAmerica]

You know what I did at 17, after years of repeated abuse in a broken home? I left and haven't spoken to them since. I can't get my head around these kids who think the only way out is murder and violence.

[BannedInBoston]

The father of a friend of mine was sh.ot to d.eath while robbing a bank. My friend served several years in the Peace Corps in Africa and is now in Katmandu helping translate Tibetan Buddhist writings into English...­.

[grandma58]

Something in the soul saying take a different road, make a choice for life. Thank you for posting that.

[sherrzinpa]

Where did you read that she was raised in a broken or abusive home? They didn't like her boyfriend.

[Downix]

If violence is the answer she found, there had to be something not right in the situation.

[RainDance33]

And what has that got to do with death of her two younger siblings, even if her parents were abusive which there is no suggestion they were?

[jimdog1954]

Collateral damage, and potential witnesses. They had to d.ie to cover up the m.urders of the parents. The fire was supposed to disguise the crime.

[LetsGetDumbAmerica]

Nothing. You are so right. But I was phrasing slightly hypothetically. And if you reread my comment I'm not defending her. I'm mocking the people going soft on her.

[JustADumbFireman]

Why is it always Texas?

[Rumplestiltskin]

It isn't.

[joshuahmcdonald]

So true...som­etimes its Florida!

[XCITIZEN]

Man, I ask myself that same question. Something really weird is going on there - and just think, our nation has been driven by 'Texas Values' for the last 8 years...

[BannedInBoston]

A culture of guns. I know. I grew up in Oklahoma with most of my relatives living in Texas. I used to jokingly call them "the Cartridge Family"...­.

[anelder]

Is it possible that the men in these areas lack some masculine self esteem? We often see it in the young male when that gun gives him the power he seems to lack in masculinity. Is it that they don't grow out of it in some areas.

Are we women to blame, again, for this diminished capacity. I certainly know in my culture we have bolstered their ego's to such an extent that they have become insufferable. Time for another generation of mothers to bat them down again.

[anelder]

Texans are changing. Or I should say the dominant comic book characters are dwindiling in numbers. Also remember Tom DeLay did not get re=elected. Slow but sure we mingle and mix it up.

[iRob08]

Didn't approve of the boyfriend.­..that's a horrific way of being proved right. Monsters.

[kevenseven]

You just need to love those red state people and their God fearing ways.

[harriettubman]

A teenager who doesn't realize that killing a loved one is forever and outlasts any foolish love for a damn boyfriend/­girlfriend­. Let her fry. Her family is gone forever!!!

[beantowner]

Gawd. Makes me happy I never had children..­.

Best wishes to Terry Caffey. What an awful event to have to live with.

[BannedInBoston]

I wouldn't trade it for anything, though it can be heartbreaking at times. I still remember the time my son was arrested for shoplifting. Now he's married, works for Microsoft, and makes considerably more than I do. (Hmmmmm, though now that I think, I can't help wondering if there's a connection between that shoplifting incident and working for Microsoft.­...)

[springsm]

Oh you must mean the big guy buying up all the new idea companys and making them his own. Yup. More like pickpocketing.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

What an unexpected reaction.

[CitizenKane16]

It's not the kid, it's how you raise them and it sounds to me like they never felt the need to say no to the girl and when they finally did, she completely lost her mind.

[springsm]

Wow..an authority on kids. Don't be too sure of your very dogmatic ideas. Sometimes the influence is greater than the parents and their upraising. To always blame the parent is abit bogus. If she was raised permissively and then told no I doubt that she would do this crime, if she was raised strictly and then didn't get her way..she was angry. Very angry. Sometimes I think, parents really do what they should and have no where to turn. And sometimes they don't have those resources nearbye.

[XCITIZEN]

Based on this story, there is NO TELLING what was actually happening in that house and in that family - and there is no way to understand what motivated her to do this. Obviously, there is no excuse for it, but there is always a reason these things happen. I am always curious about why children kill their parents - and at age 16, she's awfully close to being a child. It isn't always random or evil. Sometimes these kids are ending what amounts to physical or psychological torture. This country suffers from a silent epidemic of child abuse. I'm just raising the issue.