Woman Refuses Deal In Murder Case
Jacqueline Bence refused a plea bargain Thursday and could become the first woman ever to be executed in Washington if convicted as charged in a murder this spring at Eloika Lake.
Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger already has charged Bence with aggravated first-degree murder, which carries a minimum penalty of life in prison without parole.
Metzger offered not to seek the death penalty if Bence would plead guilty as charged. He rejected her counter-offer to plead guilty to ordinary first-degree murder and serve 35 years.
“We thought that was a long time for a 20-year-old to be locked up in prison,” Public Defender Maryann Moreno said. “She would be 55 when she was released, and that is not a light sentence.”
Moreno said she had found only two cases since 1983 in which Washington prosecutors have sought the death penalty against a woman, and neither woman was condemned. Prison records and newspaper clippings show no evidence a woman has ever been executed in Washington.
Bence is accused of some of the most brutal acts in the torture killing of Spokane resident Richard P. Morley, 30.
Bence and Allan G. Rochek, 28, both Spokane residents, allegedly kidnapped Morley and took him to Eloika Lake in southern Pend Oreille County to punish him for failing to pay his debt to their methamphetamine ring.
According to court documents based on statements Rochek and Bence made to police, Bence began beating and stabbing the handcuffed Morley even before they reached the lake.
Bence allegedly strangled Morley, slashed his throat and repeatedly struck him in the head with a hammer. An autopsy indicated one hammer blow penetrated Morley’s skull.
Rochek also was accused of beating, clubbing and strangling Morley and helping bury him in a shallow grave. Rochek pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Bence’s trial is to start next April 1.
The jury will have three options: acquittal, first-degree murder or aggravated first-degree murder.
The aggravated charge requires a finding that Morley was killed in the course of a first-degree kidnapping or that he was killed to cover up a crime. If convicted, Bence still couldn’t be executed unless the jury decides beyond a reasonable doubt there are no mitigating factors.
, DataTimes