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

[tb1010]

Assuming this girl has a life expectancy of about 70 we as a society are going to pay 1.8 million to keep her in jail even though we know her likelihood to re-offend will be drastically reduced in 10 years and that the ability of harsh sentences has little effect on either her or the class of offenders like her. Instead, we approach the issue as "oh she deserves it" and end up with the highest prison population in the world. While these issues are emotional, We, as a society, really need to become goal oriented and stop punishing people with terms many times the number of years they have already lived.

[Indubio]

I'm glad someone besides me thinks this way. The sentence was patently absurd and beyond vegence, it serves no useful purpose keeping this kid in jail until she is 59. None.

[MDinOK]

"Beyond vengeance" She plotted to kill her parents! What do you think should be done to this young lady?

[Janney]

No useful purpose for keeping her in jail until she is 59. Listen, she murdered her family! She should've gotten the death penalty. Why should she live when her mother and siblings are no longer on this earth because of what she has done? What about her father who was shot 5 times? She knew what she was doing and she made the choice of getting her "friends" to kill her family. She should be locked up for the rest of her rotten life!

[adey]

Amen

[MyLowell]

to keep others from doing the same.

[vjoseph]

Oh please. Are you feeling this way, only because she is a young girl? She's 17 years old, that is old enough to know what is right and what is wrong. She got what she deserved

[Fernando]

You make a good point, but we do not (or should not) make judicial decisions based on how much it will cost the state or not. She was found guilty of a crime by a jury and was punished based on a standard. 10-15 years for murdering your family would send the wrong message to the inmate and to society.

[mairs]

I have no sympathy for someone who arranges to kill her entire family and by only a miracle one escapes and lives. "We all know her likelihood to re-offend with be drastically reduced in 10 years"? You don't say!

I say keep society safe from this psychopath by keeping her in prison for most of her life, and let the pot smokers out if you want to lessen the prison population.

[SteveS]

I don't want to start a debate, because I confess I am not knowledgeable on the subject, but it is my understanding that prison usually creates repeat offenders. I have never seen an article, report or statistic that says, as you claim, that one's likelihood to re-offend decreases after a certain amount of incarcerated time. Can you point me to a source that I can read further on the subject? Thanks.

[ScoutandBuckGoodDogs]

I agree with you in that many crimes are over punished. However, I'm just not sure how letting someone off for their role in a brutal crime is the solution to saving money. Perhaps instead we should just start applying the death penalty to more brutal crimes rather than just a few. If we were to kill her off in 17 years, that'll abate those extra fees to the rest of us. Sounds reaaaaallly cold but that's essentially the rationale. It's either that or we have many, many more murderers set free and I'm not sure that's the answer either.

[marred]

America you need help. This kind of horror just does not happen anywhere else in the world with this kind of regularity.

[tomk2434]

actually it does. It recursively occurs throughout cultures. It's called human nature. Have you heard of it? We all like to see other people suffer and to see our enemies driven before us. We just repress it. This kind of horror is the natural state of human existence.

[debmac85]

ah, speak for yourself. if you really believe this, you need new friends. most human's "nature" in no way aligns with your ideas. oh and you need to look up the word recursive. nice try though.

[robXdion]

They're too busy finding a minority or foreign country to point at as being worse. Americans live for their own pleasure and don't regard consequences until it's too late. The only saving grace is when the economy goes bad, they tend to develop better character and concern for each other.

[hominidx]

Or paint entire nationalities with a single brush.

[vjoseph]

You are on your soapbox again, I see

[greymom]

Oh, I think it happens all too often, only usually the family killings in other countries are the girls who are killed in so called "honor killings" by male members of the family because they were raped or they chose to not go through with an arranged marriage. Evil does not just exist in America.

[canobserv]

.....in a small town in Alberta Canada last year...a 13 year old girl and her 21 year old boyriend k i l ed her family....­an eight year old boy and both parents...­....
it is happening in more places than you think.....­..

[MyLowell]

oh please. of course we have a lot of complaints about our comuntry, but it's one of the best in the world; at least we are FREE and have respect for human rights.

[adey]

Benn gone these last 8 years?

[Mellenbal]

Such a tragic thing to happen to this man's family. My heart goes out to Terry Caffey.

[nkpatel1279]

This reminds me of the case in Idaho with Sarah Johnson . Johnson then 16 shot and killed her parents because they did not approve of her illegal immigrant boyfriends was convicted on two counts of first degree murder and is serving a life without parole sentence.

[FormerReaganite]

This is all about guns. And the solution to gun violence,
(according to gun-advocate Ted Nugent) is MORE GUNS...

[Indubio]

I think Michael Moore demonstrated in his movie Bowling for Columbine that it's more than just guns. There are more guns in Canada per capita then the US but they have a fraction of our homocide rate. If you haven't seen Bowling for Columbine its worth a look. Moore's arguments are pursuassive.

[Fernando]

Switzerland has more guns per capita than the US and this doesn't happen there with any regularity. The problem with violence in American goes deeper than that.

[Dackley]

Of course it goes deeper, but gun availability in America does contribute to overall violence. You can’t examine each country as being equal across the board—that’s naïve. America has a huge issue with gun violence. Fewer guns equal fewer deaths by those guns, regardless of why we kill with guns.

[LeftLeftLeft]

Teen-age rebellion in hyper-drive . . .

Imagine recovering from nearly being murdered by your kid. . . and the rest of you family WAS murdered. I can not fathom what that dad feels like right now.

[theone718]

The incredible irony is that now she will more than likely never see her "boyfriend" again. The immense, incredible, shocking, stupidity of such an act truly baffles me.

[tomk2434]

maybe desperation is a better word. maybe she was desperate because her home school strain of xianity psychologically abuses people for natural s exual urges and she felt the same way a person about to be swallowed by a tidal wave felt.

[debmac85]

you are projecting

[TeeLolly]

In the context of the immense, incredible, shocking stupidity of just about everything the Bush administration has done for the past eight years, including causing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents in an unnecessary war; torturing innocent people based on totally wrong "hunches" or ethnic bias; standing by while Americans with no medical care are permitted to die from curable diseases--well, it all seems to fit right in.

[robXdion]

The empathetic tone of the comments in contrast to stories about more darkly hued suspects always seems hilariously pathetic. People switch up and poor out their sympathy with violins for this, but turn into an angry mob if it was Pookie Johnson from a Baltimore row house.

[StacyGA]

You hit it right on the head but many in this blog will not admit it. The tone of many of the comments are sympathetic. Some others are trying to psycho-analyze 'because there just has to be a reason for this'. I believe the tone (and comments) would be hostile, reactionary amd r a c i s t, if the people in question were min o r ity.

[XCITIZEN]

I disagree - I find your remarks, in fact, encouraging hostile and reactionary remarks by injecting race into this discussion and blaming everyone here for something that isn't happening. You are calling the people on here racists, with a blanket statement.

[k1k2lee]

Agreed. And the sentences would be death.

[hominidx]

I'm so glad we have mind readers in this forum.

[mairs]

I agree.

[adey]

Don't confuse a failure to rush to judgement and empathy with approval.

[robXdion]

You're the one confused here. No one's calling it "approval". I'm calling it a lack of sympathy and regard of humanity when the suspect is black. Denying that is like calling the sky polka dot.

[rabiddog6708]

I would rather receive the death penalty than spend 42 years locked up before even a chance of release. 17 going in and 59 (if she gets parole at first shot) coming out. Her life is over.....s­he would nearly be retirement age when paroled. A horrible crime.....­a total waste of life all around. In her shoes, I would rather be put to death.

[entropy2]

Life sentences for the two men who did the deed?

Not that I'm a fan of the death penalty. And I truly don't look for racism under every rock, but what if those guys were two black or brown. I wonder if they would have been allowed such a deal.

[marleysghost]

These kids were not normal to begin with if they agreed to such a thing. Sounds like more than a little mental instability.

[Bariis]

I think it was a case if teenage rebellion gone too far. Mother-daughter just didn't get along to a worst degree. But the 17 year old deserves the sentence if not more.

[tomk2434]

Is your thought the result of your preexisting prejudices or your life experiences?

You are more likely to remember your thought as a fact a few months from now. Maybe you should think you don't have enough evidence to make an opinion.

[tomk2434]

I disagree. There is evidence that contradicts this from psychology and history.

There are tons of studies that show one leader can make normal people give extreme electric shocks to another person. There are other studies that show people turn into monsters after just a few days of the prisoner/warden situation.

Most germans in the 1930s were normal and agreed to do some pretty horrible things. I think most of the reaction here is really an attempt to repress how easy it is for people to break like this by labeling these kids as 'other' and saying "I'm not like that." Maybe it's worth considering the alternative hypothesis that we're all more or less like this.

[debmac85]

your cavalier use of words like "tons" and "most" belies any true knowledge of the topics you address here. your pop-psychology and pseudo history are scary misrepresentations.

[ofcoursejesusisblack]

Are we to blame all of this on teenage hormones? For pete's sake, unless her family was an abusive sicko bunch she is so going to regret this. For a boyfriend??? Well, now she'll have a whole lot of time to mull over whether or not this was actually worth it. Sheesh!

[carolsstudio]

She was so hot for her boyfriend that she killed her family for it.
Well it's plenty hot in hell, the temperature should suit her quite well.

[kainai]

The beauty of this sentence is that she won't reproduce!!!! Yahoo!!! A little natural selection survives..­...well, actually, she could figure out some rendezvous with someone in jail, but at least the odds are against her reproducin­g....thats worth celebratin­g...just looking for a silver lining in this horrific tragedy.

[majormoderate]

yea there's real beauty in a whole family being ruined.

[AtheistUS]

She reproduces constantly and in large numbers by commercial mass media - see comment of romchr below: "MTV, cable tv, Paris Hilton, and internet porn". Basically, entertainment industry.
A remedy is in stronger public education, public TV and radio, public schools... and more strict control over commercial media.

[JICC]

Well put.

[romchr]

I actually blame MTV, cable tv, Paris Hilton, and internet porn.

Why are any of these losers eligible for parole? That's absurd.

[vjoseph]

Typical, blame everything but the killer

[ethancorso]

There are millions upon millions of people who watch MTV, adore Paris Hilton, and watch online porn who have never and will never murder anyone.

Get a grip. This repugnant girl made her own choices and got what she deserved.

[AtheistUS]

These millions upon millions who spend enormous part of their time on stupid entertainment and blind to anything else (shielded from anything else) do sometimes things as bad or worse. Sometimes they may vote for Bush (and then again), sometimes may support invasion to Iraq (not knowing even where it is on a map). Well, whole empire of crooks stands on shoulders of these millions.

[ZimboChick]

erin are they allowing you to use wireless in jail...gir­l stop

[speckitis]

U-huh.... So if the monster had cried, "Paris Hilton made me do it!" that'd be logical to you?

What a maroon....­.

[Mitch rite]

Am I the only one who detected the sarcasm?

[romchr]

Apparently, yes.

Irony doesn't play well on the internets.