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Man accepts plea deal in triple murder in Moscow last year

Booking mug of Moscow, Idaho shooter John Lee. Lee is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in connection to the January 2015 deaths of his adoptive mother, 61-year-old Terri Grzebielski; his landlord, 71-year-old David Trail; and Moscow Arby’s manager 47-year-old Belinda Niebuhr. (Whitman County Sheriff)
Chelsea Embree Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
Booking mug of Moscow, Idaho shooter John Lee. Lee is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in connection to the January 2015 deaths of his adoptive mother, 61-year-old Terri Grzebielski; his landlord, 71-year-old David Trail; and Moscow Arby’s manager 47-year-old Belinda Niebuhr. (Whitman County Sheriff)

A Moscow, Idaho man has admitted that there’s enough evidence to convict him in a shooting spree that killed three people and injured a fourth last year.

John Lee, 30, initially tried to change his plea to guilty in the shooting deaths of his adoptive mother, Terri L. Grzebielski; his landlord, David M. Trail; and Moscow Arby’s manager Belinda G. Neibuhr.

A judge rejected those pleas, however, because Lee didn’t admit to premeditation – planning the crime in advance.

Lee instead entered Alford pleas in all three deaths, which means he didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him.

He also entered an Alford plea to a charge of aggravated assault for the shooting of Michael Chin, 40, of Seattle, who was also was injured in the incident.

Sentencing is set for May 24 in Moscow. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors do not intend to seek the death penalty.

According to KHQ, Lee was confused when asked by a judge if he committed the crimes.

“It’s not what I think, it’s what everybody else does,” Lee told the judge.

At that point 2nd District Judge John Stegner said, “I’m not sure I can accept that plea.”

Attorneys proposed the Alford plea instead, which Stegner accepted.

The allegations against Lee stem from a January 2015 shooting spree that began with the killing of his landlord Trail, 76, at Trail’s Northwestern Mutual office. Trail was meeting with Chin at the time.

Lee then drove to the Moscow Arby’s, where he asked for the manager before shooting Neibuhr, 47, as she fled out the drive-through window.

He then made a stop at his parents’ house. Moscow police later responded to a call for a welfare check there, where they found Grzebielski, 61, inside on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds, according to court documents.

Lee got in a black Honda and led law enforcement officials on a high-speed chase before the car ran off the road along U.S. Highway 195 outside Steptoe, according to police. Lee was apprehended and charged as the sole perpetrator in the incident.