John Lee says he was ‘pyschologically coerced’ into accepting agreement in May 2016.
Uh-huh.
But now they can throw the book at him. Maybe that’s what he wants?
Convicted murderer John Lee says he was “psychologically coerced” into accepting a plea agreement following his 2015 Moscow shooting spree, though his own lawyer believes he understood exactly what he was doing.
John Lee was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole in May 2016, after admitting he shot and killed his adoptive mother, 61-year-old Terri Grzebielski; his landlord, David Trail, 76; and Moscow Arby’s manager Belinda Niebuhr, 47. He also shot Michael Chin, 40, of Seattle.
After initially pleading innocent, Lee later entered an Alford plea, acknowledging that there was enough evidence to convict him, while maintaining that the shootings weren’t premeditated.
He now wants to withdraw that plea. His motion to do so was the subject of a five-hour hearing in Latah County 2nd District Court on Wednesday. Because the motion is based on Lee’s mental state at the time he entered the plea, court rules require him to waive attorney-client privilege. That allowed his former attorney, Charles Kovis of Moscow, to testify.
Kovis said there was “never any doubt that people had been killed and that (Lee) did it.”
Consequently, “I felt like (the plea agreement) was absolutely the best thing that could happen,” he said. “There were a terrible set of facts in the case. (The plea deal) took the death penalty off the table.”
Via the LMT