Man Gets 32 Years For Murder-Mutilation

A Lynnwood, Wash., man was sentenced Thursday to 32 years in prison for the murder-mutilation of a woman he met at a tavern.

On Wednesday, the day his trial was to begin, Jeremey Joseph Gwinn, 25, entered an Alford plea to first-degree murder. The plea means Gwinn didn’t technically admit to the crime but acknowledged a jury would most likely find him guilty.

In return, Snohomish County prosecutors agreed to recommend a 30-year sentence, but that was not binding on Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne.

Gwinn was charged in the death of Betty Linda Siddons, 37, who was last seen Dec. 17 at a Lynnwood party after working her shift as a cocktail waitress at the Kirkland Eagles Club.

Witnesses told detectives Siddons met Gwinn after leaving a tavern in Lynnwood with a group of people. Gwinn was an acquaintance of one of the people she was with.

Witnesses told detectives that the group went to an apartment together, but Gwinn and Siddons left.

Her bloodstained car, which had been set on fire, was found Dec. 18 near the Northgate shopping mall in Seattle.

Court papers said Gwinn raped or tried to rape the woman before killing her.

Gwinn was charged after his girlfriend, Joy Stoltz, 22, led detectives in January to a remote location south of Elbe near the Alder Dam in south Pierce County, where they found burned human body parts.

Stoltz pleaded guilty in February to rendering criminal assistance for providing Gwinn with transportation to help conceal the body.