McCard will serve 25 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections on the murder charge and 21 years on the kidnapping charge. Judge Rick Lambert ordered these sentences to run consecutively.
[h=2]McCard still awaits federal sentencing[/h]The 46-year Arizona term will
run consecutively to the sentence outlined in his plea deal on the federal charge of kidnapping resulting in murder. The agreement recommends 348 months, or 29 years, in federal custody. He will be sentenced in that case in July.
Chief Deputy County Attorney James M. Schoppman said it is "unusual" in these types of cases to have a three-party agreement among Arizona, Utah and the federal government.
As part of the federal plea deal, McCard had to admit to three aggravating factors in the Arizona case: the fact that there were one or more accomplices involved in the crime, the crime was committed in a cruel manner, and the immediate family suffered significant emotional harm.
