BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Colorado man faces sentencing Monday in the killing of a Montana math teacher in the Northern Plains’ oil patch.
Lester Van Waters Jr. of Parachute, Colorado pleaded guilty last year to a count of deliberate homicide by accountability. The case is before Montana District Judge Richard Simonton in Sidney.
Prosecutors say Waters and accomplice Michael Spell killed 43-year-old Sidney High School teacher Sherry Arnold during an abduction attempt in 2012. Her body was found more than two months later buried in a rural area of North Dakota.
In exchange for Waters’ guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop an attempted kidnapping charge and recommend Waters receive 100 years in prison with 20 years suspended.
Spell pleaded guilty last month to deliberate homicide. His sentencing has not been scheduled.
