To avoid the death penalty, a 37-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to killing a friend and helping chop up the body and burn the remains in an attempt to hide the crime.
Cardale Anthony Goens of Hamilton pleaded guilty to charges of murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the 2003 fatal shooting of Jeffrey Glenn Watson, 41.
In exchange for Goens' guilty plea, prosecutors dropped an aggravated murder charge, which could have carried the death penalty.
Last year, Goens' two accomplices - Anthony C. Ruffin, 45, of East Price Hill, and Gary Benson, 51, of Hamilton - were convicted of gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in Watson's death. Ruffin is serving a four-year prison sentence, and Benson is serving six years.
The men were childhood friends who became involved in drugs, Watson's sister Cassandra Taylor said Friday.
Watson sold crack cocaine for Goens in exchange for money and a place to stay, Taylor said.
"Once they got hooked on the drugs, everything went wrong for all of them," said Taylor, 40, of Winton Place. "I wasn't looking forward to going to that trial and reliving all the things they did to my brother.
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