Jaycee Dugard's Kidnapper Phillip Garrido Expected To Plead Guilty Thursday
Apr. 7 2011, Published 11:54 a.m. ET
Convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido is expected to plead guilty Thursday to the notorious kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard back when she was just eleven years old, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Garrido and his wife Nancy were indicted last October on 18 charges, including three counts of kidnapping, six of rape, seven of forced lewd acts upon a child, one of false imprisonment and one count of possession or control of child pornography.
Although Phillip's attorney, Susan Gellman, would not comment on the case or what her client would say at his arraignment Thursday, Garrido,60,will reportedly plead guilty to 16 of the 18 charges.
The couple is accused of holding Jaycee captive in their secret backyard compound of their home in Antioch, east of San Francisco for nearly two decades until she was discovered alive in August, 2009. Phillip is also accused of fathering her two daughters.
Garrido did not want Jaycee or the two children he had with her to testify against him, said attorney Stephen Tapson, who represents Nancy; she earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains in jail until her trial.
Said Tapson: "He's (Phillip) confessed to it, so he's pleading guilty, and he doesn't want to put Jaycee through the trial."
Tapson also noted that Phillip hopes a guilty plea will gain some mercy for Nancy.
In 1991, while at a school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, California, Jaycee was allegedly abducted by Phillip and his wife. She was then allegedly kept prisoner in the couple's backyard for almost two decades.
Since being freed, Dugard, now 30, has been living at a secret location with her family.
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