The man who kidnapped 7-year-old Somer Thompson on her way home from school two years ago has avoided the death penalty by accepting a plea deal. Jarred Harrell was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after agreeing to drop his right to appeal the sentence later.Somer's family members agreed to the plea deal, prosecutors said.
After entering his guilty plea, Harrell listened to several victim impact statements, including one from Somer's twin brother Samuel.
"You know you did this, and now you're going to jail," Samuel Thompson told Harrell.
Some's mother, Diena Thompson, who attended every court hearing in the case, told Harrell he would never find peace.
'No Peace in the Afterlife'
"Your punishment does absolutely not fit your crime," she said. "Remember now, there is no safe place for you. You do not have an impenetrable cell. There will be no peace in the afterlife."
Court papers show that on Oct. 19, 2009 Harrell lured Somer into the Orange Park, Florida house where he was living with his mother on the route on which she walked from school. On the day she was abducted, Somer got into an argument with others she was walking with and ran ahead of the group. She was alone when she was kidnapped by Harrell.
He sexually assaulted her, killed her and put her body in the garbage.
Authorities found her body two days later in a landfill in south Georgia.
Harrell pleaded to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the Somer Thompson case. But he also pleaded to possession of child pornography and several other sexual-related charges in connection with an unrelated case involving a 3 year old.
The 3 year old was a relative of Harrell's, according to court records.
See Also:
Killer of Fla. Girl Found in Landfill Gets Life
Background:
The Murder of Somer Thompson
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Photos: Mug Shot, Family Photo
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