South Carolina church gunman to plead guilty to murder charges
South Carolina church gunman to plead guilty to murder charges, Dylann Roof, convicted and sentenced to death in federal court for the 2015 massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, will plead guilty to related state murder charges, the prosecutor handling the case said on Friday.
According To (Reuters)...Roof is charged with killing nine parishioners on June 17, 2015, during a Bible study meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He will receive a sentence of life in prison for the state charges and face no second trial as part of the plea agreement, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said by phone.
He is due to enter his plea on April 10.
Wilson declined to discuss the reason for the move.
"The goal is to get him into federal custody so their sentence can be imposed," she told the Post and Courier newspaper.
Roof was sentenced to death in federal court in January after a jury found him guilty of 33 charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, in the shooting.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tom Brown) www.msn.com
