A guilty plea, with a life sentence

◼ Tracey Joleen William gets 25 years in killing of Ezra Sanders - TS - John Driscoll
...Tracey Joleen Williams pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with special allegations of using a firearm during the act, and to first-degree residential robbery while acting in concert with two or more people. The plea agreement with the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office has Williams sentenced to 25 years in state prison....

Last summer, Ruben Anthony Peredia of Eureka and Lukus Larry Mace of Orleans entered guilty pleas to voluntary manslaughter. Peredia was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison. Mace made a plea agreement to testify against his codefendants, and he will be sentenced to six years in prison. In January, Jeffrey Alan Burgess of Eureka -- the man believed to have fired the gunshot that killed Sanders -- pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery while acting with two or more people, and discharging a firearm during the commission of a felony. His sentence is 30 years....
”I'm completely comfortable with Ms. Williams' disposition that she will actually serve 20 years,” said Deputy District Attorney Ben McLaughlin after the hearing Monday.

McLaughlin said that the case against Peredia was not as strong as those against Williams and Burgess, especially since the main witness against Peredia was Mace, an accomplice. Testimony of an accomplice alone is not sufficient, he said. McLaughlin also said that the plea agreement with Burgess was a hedge against a trial in which a judge might exclude an important part of a confession, as the court did in Burgess' preliminary hearing.

McLaughlin said that while Williams did not herself kill Sanders, she was able to plead to the manslaughter and firearm charges under case law that allows such a plea as part of an agreement....