PLACERVILLE, Calif., March 1 (UPI) -- The California couple charged with kidnapping schoolgirl Jaycee Dugard and holding her for 18 years have confessed in a bid for mercy, a lawyer says.
Stephen Tapson, who was appointed to represent Nancy Garrido, said her husband, Phillip, hopes to win leniency for her, The Sacramento Bee reported. Tapson, who spoke to reporters after a court hearing Monday, said Nancy Garrido sat in a room with Dugard and made a full confession.
Dugard, who was 11 when she was abducted while on her way to school in South Lake Tahoe, was kept as Phillip Garrido's sex slave. When she was found, she was living with her two daughters in a shed on the Garridos' property in Antioch.
"For your information, Mr. and Mrs. Garrido have given full, complete statements to the Sheriff's Department in the last month or so, been honest with them, frankly, in the hope of mercy on behalf of Mr. Garrido for Mrs. Garrido," Tapson said. "Unfortunately, the quality of mercy is strained in El Dorado County."
Nancy Garrido has been offered a sentence of 241 years and eight months to life Tapson said, while her husband's sentence would be 440 years to life.
