If Tommy was not present when Haleigh was killed, he will never get the same sentence as whoever killed her, as far as I know. He may be charged with tampering, withholding evidence, lying to police, and even disposing of a body, if he did, but not murder, if he was not there at the time she died. I saw one case on MSNBC where two teens killed another teen and then tried to burn the body but it did not work...so they got a ghoulish friend of theirs from school to chop up the body in order to better hide it...this guy got 5 years or so for mutilating a corpse...just saying...things that happen after the murder are never the same as what happens during, as far as sentencing...maybe that is why his lawyer is saying what little he is saying...he somehow knows or believes that Tommy was not there at the crucial moment...
He may be guilty of one hundred moral crimes...and half a dozen legal ones...and if he IS the one to break the case for LE may well be able to plea to some of the lesser charges and do a couple of years...who knows. Solving this case is worth a lot to LE. JMO
(But I do think if he is scared, it IS of Ron...)