Garridos admit kidnapping Jaycee Dugard

• Tweet

PLACERVILLE, Calif., April 28 (UPI) -- Phillip and Nancy Garrido admitted Thursday they abducted Jaycee Garrido when she was 11 years old and imprisoned her for years in their California home.

Phillip Garrido, 60, agreed to a plea bargain calling for a sentence of 431 years to life, while his wife, 55, must serve 31 years of a 36-year to life sentence before she is eligible for parole, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Phillip Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping, forcible rape and forcible lewd acts involving a child. His wife admitted kidnapping and aiding and abetting her husband.

Dugard, 30, was kidnapped in 1991 as she walked to school in South Lake Tahoe. When she was discovered 18 years later, she was living in a shed in back of the Garridos' home in Antioch, Calif., with the two daughters Phillip Garrido fathered.

Nancy Garrido cried through most of the hearing. Her lawyer, Stephen Tapson, said her main concern was to spare Dugard from appearing as a witness.

"I gotta tell you, from the get-go, she said just do the best you can, Mr. Tapson, because I don't want Jaycee and the kids to go through an actual trial," he said.

Dugard released a short statement.

"I'm relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family," Dugard said.

The Garridos are scheduled to be sentenced June 2.