Posted 12:01 pm Saturday, January 03, 2009
Teens Sentenced For Family Murders
By COSHANDRA DILLARD
Staff Writer
EMORY -- Alba teen Erin Caffey, 17, received two life sentences and an additional 25 years for her role in the murders of her mother and two young brothers Friday in a Rains County courtroom. Defense attorney William McDowell said Ms. Caffey may be eligible for parole at age 59. Co-defendant Bobbie Johnson, who was named an accomplice who did not use a weapon in the affidavit, was sentenced to 40 years in prison and may be eligible for parole in 20 years.
Staff Writer
EMORY -- Alba teen Erin Caffey, 17, received two life sentences and an additional 25 years for her role in the murders of her mother and two young brothers Friday in a Rains County courtroom. Defense attorney William McDowell said Ms. Caffey may be eligible for parole at age 59. Co-defendant Bobbie Johnson, who was named an accomplice who did not use a weapon in the affidavit, was sentenced to 40 years in prison and may be eligible for parole in 20 years.
Ms. Caffey's trial was set to begin Feb. 2 in Hopkins County with Eighth District Court Judge Robert Newsom presiding, but McDowell said the plea agreement was decided Friday morning.
"I think it was a just sentence," he said. "Everyone is pleased with it."
McDowell said Ms. Caffey has had several visits with her father since the killings.
In November, Charles Allen Waid, 20, and Charlie James Wilkinson, 19, pleaded guilty to capital murder for their involvement in the killings.
Waid and Wilkinson are expected to be formally sentenced soon, McDowell said. They will most likely receive life sentences without parole, he said.
Ms. Caffey's father, Terry Caffey, 41, was shot five times but got out of his burning house and reached his neighbors. Still conscious, he told them he recognized Wilkinson shooting him and his wife in their bed, sheriff's officials said. He has since recovered from his gunshot wounds.
Penny Caffey, 37, a church pianist, and sons Mathew, 13, and Tyler, 8, were shot and stabbed to death.
Their bodies were removed once firefighters extinguished the flames of the home, which burned to the ground, officials said.
Officials believe the murders occurred because, the night before the incident, Wilkinson was forbidden to date the then-16-year-old Caffey.
The arrest affidavit described Waid, Wilkinson and Ms. Johnson confessing to the murders. "Wilkinson stated that he and Erin were in love and the only way they could be together is to kill the parents," the affidavit stated.
Waid, Wilkinson and Ms. Johnson still sit in the Rains County Jail, while Ms. Caffey awaits her transfer to prison in the Hopkins County Jail.
