TACOMA, Wash., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army soldier pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping Monday in the killings of two fellow soldiers and abduction of their young daughter, officials said.
Spc. Ivette Davila entered the plea as her court-martial was about to begin at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, the Tacoma News-Tribune reported.
In exchange for her guilty plea, the 24-year-old will no longer face a possible death sentence, the newspaper said.
Davila had been charged with premeditated murder in the March 2008 killings of Staff Sgt. Timothy Miller and his wife, Sgt. Randi J. Miller.
The Millers were killed in their Parkland, Wash., home.
Their young daughter, kidnapped from the home, was later found unharmed.
Pierce County sheriff's investigators arrested Davila shortly after the slayings, but the military took over the criminal case because the victims, suspect and many witnesses were all military members, the News-Tribune said.
Prosecutors alleged Davila met the Millers at a Tacoma nightclub, went back to their home and shot the military couple.
Prosecutors said Davila was angry with Randi Miller, believing the woman was having an affair with Davila's ex-boyfriend.
Later, authorities said, Davila drove to a home-improvement store, bought muriatic acid and tried to burn both bodies in the bathtub.
She took the couple's 7-month-old daughter Kassidy back to her barracks and confessed to a fellow soldier that she had "hurt people bad," prosecutors said.
