Lawyer: Garridos confess to Jaycee Dugard kidnapping
Updated: Feb. 28 8:35pm.
By Sam Stanton, Sacramento Bee
Phillip and Nancy Garrido have made a “full confession” to the 1991 kidnapping of 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in hopes of convincing prosecutors to allow Nancy Garrido to some day be released from prison, a defense attorney in the case revealed today.
Nancy Garrido’s court-appointed lawyer, Stephen Tapson, said this afternoon in Placerville that the Garridos had met separately with El Dorado County sheriff’s detectives in the last month and spelled out exactly how they abducted Dugard and held her captive for 18 years.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido
Nancy Garrido’s confession took place with Dugard in the room, watching from across a table as the woman who snatched her off the street tearfully described what she had done, Tapson said.
The extraordinary revelation came after a brief and seemingly routine hearing in the 18-month-old case. Tapson emerged from the El Dorado County courthouse and told reporters gathered around him that Phillip Garrido had made the statement in a bid to win leniency for his wife. He said prosecutors have offered her a plea deal if she agrees to a sentence of 241 years, eight months to life, while Phillip Garrido has been offered a sentence of 440 years to life.
“So, she’s obviously guilty of kidnapping and a bunch of other charges, but I think at least based on what happened after all the stuff started to become the bizarre family that she should at least be able to walk on the beach, probably with a walker at some point before she dies,” Tapson said.