The state plans to seek life without the possibility of parole in an upcoming Greene County double murder trial.
During an arraignment Wednesday in Criminal Court for Jessie Wilhoit, Judge John F. Dugger told Wilhoit the prosecution has also filed notice to seek separate consecutive sentences in the deaths of 68-year-old Ray Allen Wilhoit and 60-year-old Cassandra T. Wilhoit. If convicted as the state seeks, the now 36-year-old Wilhoit would be sentenced to 60 years on each count to be served consecutively. The public defender’s office was represented in court today by Ally Richey. Richey told the presiding judge on behalf of the defendant; she wished to enter “for the record” a not guilty plea.
Wilhoit was indicted September 2nd on two counts of first-degree murder of the couple on October 25th of last year. They were killed with a machete at the Hartman Lane residence where the three lived.
Wilhoit, who remains held in the Greene County Detention Center on $2 million bond, was in the courtroom yesterday in street clothes, his hair shorter and a darker shade than the most recent mug shot taken following his arrest the day of the deaths.
