Ex-Stripper Gets 99 Years For Murder Plot

Judge Sentences Stripper-Turned-Soccer Mom For Plotting To Kill Her Former Fiance In Alaska

(CBS/AP)  A former stripper-turned-soccer-mom convicted of plotting to kill her former fiance 12 years ago was sentenced Wednesday to 99 years in prison.

Mechele Linehan, 35, who until her arrest had been living a quiet life as the wife of an Olympia, Wash., doctor, was convicted in October of first-degree murder in the 1996 shooting death of Kent Leppink.

Prosecutor Pat Gullufsen said Linehan plotted with another man who hoped to marry her, John Carlin III, to lure Leppink to a rural trail, where Carlin shot him with a .44-caliber handgun.

In the mid-1990s, Linehan was making ends meet as an exotic dancer at "The Great Alaskan Bush Company," where she not only made lots of money, but also attracted the attention of several men who wanted to marry her, reported 48 Hours correspondent Susan Spencer.

Prosecutors said that her motive was a $1 million insurance policy that Linehan mistakenly believed named her as the beneficiary.

Carlin was sentenced in January to 99 years in prison for firing the shots that killed Leppink.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Philip Volland called the crime the worst in its category: premeditated, cold and cruel.

"It was a calculated homicide accomplished through deceit, deception and manipulation," Volland said. "It was done for the most venal of reasons and it was dismissed by the two participants in the most casual of ways. It was a man killed by his friend and his fiance."

Volland rejected the contention that Linehan was not a significant participant in Leppink's murder. The evidence showed her obtaining the life insurance policy on Leppink as she was deceiving him about her intentions to marry him, he said. She also used deceit to lure him to the murder scene.

"Just those facts are ones that support complicity in the event," Volland said.

Dozens of people who knew Linehan in the decade after Leppink's murder wrote letters supporting her, mentioning her generosity and volunteer service. But Volland said he could not offer a sentence different from the one he gave to Carlin.

"In my mind I can find no principal distinction between the puppet who pulls the trigger and the puppeteer who pulls the strings," Volland said. "In my judgment, Ms. Linehan was the puppeteer who pulled the strings."

Linehan showed no emotion as the sentence was pronounced. In a short statement, she said she was not the monster prosecutors and the press made her out to be.

"I beg you from the bottom of my heart to allow me the chance to go back to my family as soon as I possibly can," she told Volland.

She will be eligible for parole after serving 33 years.

Prosecutors said Linehan was inspired by a 1994 movie, "The Last Seduction," in which a woman coaxes her lover into killing her husband for money.

Leppink's body was found by utility workers on the ground near a lonely trail in Hope, more than an hour's drive from Anchorage. He had been shot three times with a .44 Magnum. Prosecutors say Linehan and Carlin had lured him to the desolate mining community by using a fictitious note that Leppink found, saying Linehan was holed up in a cabin. The cabin didn't exist.

Carlin and Linehan have denied they were responsible for Leppink's death. Neither testified.

[keithle1]

Every square inch of her body will be explored by her friendly fellow felons.

[keithle1]

The only power young women have is sexual power. Take that away & what do they have?

French classical author Francois La Rochefoucauld:

"There are few women whose charm survives their beauty."

"It is valueless to a woman to be young unless pretty, or to be pretty unless young."

[unknownCAguy]

Lol the quality of American women sure has went down the drain. Presently they are being abused, abusing, doing drugs, having promiscuous ***, cheating on their spouse, prostituting themselves, committing murder, attempting to commit murder, embezzling, extorting, spewing ethnocentric hate, etc.

Further proof this country is a ****hole! Don''t worry global warming will reform us all soon. Someone or something needs to stop the human race from continuing to procreate. Thank God!

[ranger1948]

Mr Mustard and truth hurts
How much do you really know about the American justice system. I see nothing wrong with how the judge handled the case. I read the sory when it first came out. I spent 15 years working law enfoircement. What i was tired of seeing was a judge who gives a defendant a slap on the wrist and says don''t do it again. We have established laws which we are supposed to live by in this society. She was playing all three men against each other to get everything she could from the, She plotted the murdr and helped execute it. She is guilty and i think she should have gotten the death sentence.

[ranger1948]

If you want to wait she is in her thirties now, if she serves 33 years she will be in her sixties, i am sure she would be glad to seee you waiting at the gate for her and will talk you into buying her an insurance policy on her.

[ranger1948]

diallosmom
I agree with you totally. A lot of women from asia work prostitution. They have no education, come from poor families and are even sold into prostitution by their fathers to earn money to support their famlies. I introducd one such girl to a frioend. They have been happily married for 20 years, she is totally loyal to him, they worked and built a great business together. Like i told this woman before i have seen the women she mentioned as being honorable. The screw around on their husbands while the husband is out earning a living. Being a stripper or a prostitute does not make a woman loqw class person. It comes from the intregrity of the person to be low class.

[dennishart4]

We posted her video and Bio, it''s a shame she is going away. She is really cute, but murder? www.theoandavirus.com

[ontheleft]

So that''s the way the justice system works in this country. She didn''t actually kill anyone and got 99 years. Bush is responsible for the deaths of over a million people and he gets a pension for life.

[khanghi-2009]

Alright, I don''t get it. I LOVE women! I love looking at NAKED WOMEN as much as the next guy. (in the right private and discreet circumstances) But, PAY to look at a naked woman? A naked woman that''s not going to let you touch or...

If you get taken by a stripper then, as far as I''m concerned, you''re doing a public service. You''re illustrating that, indeed, Darwin was right, and we''re all better off for the gene pool being cleaned up a little.

[bgwinnett]

Would have only got 4 years in the UK. I know you couldn''t make it up.

[keithle1]

She''s gonna get passed around by the inmates for a carton of cigarettes. Tee hee. After about a year or two, you won''t recognize her. Funny. She''ll be the walking dead.

[dennishart4]

We posted her pictures and 1 video. she wasn''t bad looking? I wonder why she did it?? www.theoandavirus.com

[cdfoxtrot]

She''s too gorgeous to go to jail. To use the kind of thinking that McCain is using to try to get elected, this alleged murder is in the past. It''s behind us. Time to look ahead. Not look to the past. etc. etc.

[easeup-2009]

Mechele???

*** kind of stripper name is that? It should be mandated that all strippers be named Amber, Charity Chasity or Miss Demeanor.

[toolmangler-2009]

[The sentence seemed a little light to me, but I have never heard of ANYONE getting 99 years. Only in Alaska? Or has anybody else ever heard of this kind of sentence? Just wondering.]
[Posted by BCBBKAKE at 12:11 PM : Apr 03, 2008]
texas and florida.
Posted by bobnjersey at 02:12 PM : Apr 03, 2008



The Medicos say that it is now possible to live 150 years, Maybe they plan to put her on parole after her 134th birthday.

[diallosma]

Men who think strippers make for good wives and mothers, beware!! The character of a woman who would rather take her clothes off for more money instead of working a lower paying job (she had no kids) clearly indicates a person who takes the easy road instead of the honorable one.
Posted by tennesseean1 at 01:58 AM


I beg to differ and until you have lived a life and faced consequeces for bad desicions you shouldn''t judge. This is coming from an "ex-stripper". That is what I did to make money it did not define me. And for all those that think you can''t change, I am also a felon but manage to work full-time, take care of my 6 year old son, and not live on welfare (another misconception). Don''t judge every book by it''s cover.

[carpriddler]

Mechele, I''ll wait for you!

[hoosiermoon]

This is the kind of lying untrustable tramp that Sam Kinison used to talk about.

[option-allie]

The Great Alaskan Bush Company............according to their (nice) website, they ARE hiring girls at this time. Wow, I guess they know how to keep their men warm up in Alaska.

[Latrocinor]

yes ... but are you the ''''master of your domain''''?

Posted by bobnjersey at 02:07 PM : Apr 03, 2008
----------------
Sigh...no...my cat is.