Thornton pleads no contest

[MysticFlower]

Thornton pleads no contest
Thornton could agree to testify
Travis Griggs • tgriggs@pnj.com • January 28, 2010


One of seven people charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the death of Byrd and Melanie Billings pleaded no contest this morning to second-degree murder.

Frederick Thornton Jr., 19, entered the plea before Circuit Judge Nick Geeker.


He was initially charged with two counts of premeditated first-degree murder.


State Attorney Bill Eddins said prosecutors accepted the no-contest plea to the lesser charge of second-degree murder after Thornton agreed to testify against the other defendants in the case.


“It allows me to have a person who’s been honest, that was in the house with them, that knows what happened in the house, to explain it,” Eddins said.


Six men and a teenager are charged with first-degree murder in the Billingses’ deaths. An eighth person — a woman — is charged as an accessory after the fact.


Eddins said prosecutors are no longer seeking the death penalty against Thornton, but the 19-year-old Fort Walton Beach man still faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
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http://www.pnj.com/article/20100128/...ads-no-contest