ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — 44 years next a Washington guy assisted within the homicide of an Athens mom and the abduction of her 16-day-old child, may well be officially sentenced for his crimes this day.
Harold Lee Schut, 80, has been in a Texas jail for the endmost few a long time serving a month sentence for committing a alike crime along with his spouse, Jackie Sue Schut.
In 1987, Harold Schut pleaded in charge to the 1980 homicide of Geneva Clemons and the abduction of James Clemons in Athens. Reporting at the case from the Associated Press says Schut was once dropped at Athens at the homicide price next he was once arrested in Reno, Nev., in 1985 on kid molestation fees.
Following his in charge plea, he was once transferred to Texas to stand legal fees for any other murder-kidnapping in Houston and despatched to a jail in Huntsville, Texas, the place he has been held ever since.
He has a listening to eager for October in regards to the Athens murder-kidnapping case.
The sentencing, if it takes playground on the October listening to, would mark the tip of a protracted criminal procedure. Schut has been eager to be officially sentenced various instances over the endmost 37 years, each and every future, for one reason why or any other, it by no means got here to fruition.
The actual crime took playground on January 20, 1989, when the Schuts shot and killed Geneva. Courtroom paperwork display they took James earlier than depart him in a pasture. James was once discovered within the farmland and survived.
The AP reported that an associate district legal professional dealing with the case in Houston instructed them the Schuts old a “Beautiful Baby” brochure match and posed as brochure photographers as a part of their scheme to manner the moms and their youngsters.
In step with that AP record, Jackie Schut was once serving a sentence for kid abuse in Washington Circumstance and fought extradition to Athens for the murder-kidnapping.
“She was brought to Alabama only after the Limestone County district attorney agreed to reduce the capital murder charge to a charge that would not carry a possible death penalty,” AP reported.
Jackie Schut was once convicted and has been in Julia Tutwiler Jail in Wetumpka since 1985. She has been up for parole various instances through the years, however each and every future her parole was once denied.
Schut has argued through the years that his actual plea commitment would permit for his Alabama sentence to run similtaneously along with his sentence in Texas. Alternatively, the Limestone County District Legal professional’s Place of job denied that stipulation was once a part of the actual commitment.
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In a 1991 letter to Schut, then-District Legal professional James Fry instructed Schut his future within the Texas jail was once void so far as Alabama was once involved.
“As far as the State of Alabama is concerned, currently, your Texas penitentiary time is dead time,” mentioned Fry within the letter. “It does not county off any on an Alabama sentence which is yet to be imposed.”
The listening to is ready to pluck playground on October 25 on the Limestone County Courthouse.
