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Murray Man Charged With Murder Of Two Women Pleads Guilty

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  A Murray man charged last year with murdering two women and killing a dog pleaded guilty to the charges Tuesday as a part of a plea deal. 

 

Shannon Scott pleaded guilty in circuit court to two counts of murder, one count of animal cruelty, and one count of unauthorized use of an automobile from a separate indictment. A charge of tampering with physical evidence was dropped as part of the deal. 

 

Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 40 years in prison with possibility of parole after 20 years for the murder charges. Prosecutors also recommended two separate prison sentences of 12 months for the charge of animal cruelty and the charge of unauthorized use of an automobile, set to run concurrently with the murder sentence.

 

42nd Circuit Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Foust said he talked with family members of the victims ahead of the deal.

 

“The bottom line is it's effectively a life sentence we feel like, subject again to the whims of the parole board,” he said. “In all my years being in the legal system, I haven’t seen too many cases where somebody did what he did and got parole.”

 

The Murray Police Department charged Scott for the murder of Tera Todd and Evelyn Scott and for killing a dog in early 2019. The sentencing hearing is set for Feb. 26. Ahead of that date, Scott will be evaluated to see if he qualifies for a “guilty but mentally ill” sentence to potentially receive mental health treatment while serving his sentence.

"Liam Niemeyer is a reporter for the Ohio Valley Resource covering agriculture and infrastructure in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia and also serves Assistant News Director at WKMS. He has reported for public radio stations across the country from Appalachia to Alaska, most recently as a reporter for WOUB Public Media in Athens, Ohio. He is a recent alumnus of Ohio University and enjoys playing tenor saxophone in various jazz groups."
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