Defendant uses Alford plea in Rock County murder case

By STEVE BENTON ( Contact ) Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Podcast Episode

WCLO's Steve Benton reports a Beloit murder suspect says he's innocent of murder but agrees a jury would find him guilty due to the evidence.

RSS

ROCK COUNTY — The jury in a Rock County murder trial gets a day off.

Due to a scheduling conflict for witnesses, the defense decided to close out the first phase of the trial Wednesday morning. 36 year old Donyil Anderson entered an Alford plea to the charges of first degree intentional homicide, and attempted first degree intentional homicide. Rock County Judge James Daley then found Anderson guilty.

The Alford plea is where the defendant pleads innocent, but agrees there's enough evidence for the jury to come to a guilty verdict.

Anderson pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness or mental defect, and the trial will now move to phase two where the defense must prove Anderson was not responsible for his actions because of his mental state.

Anderson is accused of killing 31 year old Stacey Hosey and injuring 25 year old Branden Beavers-Jackson in Beloit in 2008. Testimony is scheduled to resume Thursday morning.

Before you post a comment, consider this:

Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy Agreement

Keep it clean. Comments that are obscene, vulgar or sexually oriented will be removed. Creative spelling of such terms or implied use of such language is banned, also.
Don't threaten to hurt or kill anyone.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person.
Harassing comments. If you are the subject of a harassing comment or personal attack by another user, do not respond in-kind. Hit the "Suggest Removal" button on offensive comments.
Share what you know. Give us your eyewitness accounts, background, observations and history.
Do not libel anyone. Libel is writing something false about someone that damages that person's reputation.
Ask questions. What more do you want to know about the story?
Stay focused. Keep on the story's topic.
Help us get it right. If you spot a factual error or misspelling, email newsroom@gazettextra.com or call 1-800-362-6712.
Remember, this is our site. We set the rules, and we reserve the right to remove any comments that we deem inappropriate.

Post Comment

Commenting requires registration.

News:

Opinion:

Blogs | Columns | Political Cartoons | Polls

Sports:

Multimedia:

Community:

Births | Couples | Obituaries | Death Notices

Blogs

Blog List | Latest Blog Entries

Services:

Reader Rewards | Retail Locations

Copyright ©2007 Bliss Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Use of this material and this site are subject to the GazetteExtra Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Content may not be published, broadcast, re-distributed or re-written.