Jaycee Dugard Update: Nancy Garrido's bid for leniency insulting to kidnap victim, says D.A.
(CBS/AP) PLACERVILLE, Calif. - Jaycee Dugard was insulted, according to reports, when a defense lawyer suggested that some leniency should be shown to Nancy Garrido, who is charged in the kidnapping, rape and 18-year imprisonment of Dugard in Northern California.
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The lawyer for Nancy Garrido said his client deserved compassion because she acted as Dugard's mother and was under the control of her husband, co-defendant Phillip Garrido.
"I think that to make a comment about Nancy being like a mother and she was an unwilling participant and she should be shown some compassion...Those were offensive comments," El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson told reporters.
Pierson made his remarks after a brief court hearing where criminal proceedings against the Garridos were put on hold for three weeks while negotiations continued on a possible plea deal that could spare Dugard and her two daughters, fathered by Phillip Garrido, from testifying at trial.
The Garridos are accused of kidnapping Dugard, now 30, when she was an 11-year-old girl and holding her captive in the backyard of their Antioch, Calif. home until they were arrested in August 2009. Each has been charged with 18 felony counts that include false imprisonment, rape and child pornography.Nancy Garrido has pleaded not guilty. Phillip Garrido has not yet entered a plea.
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Criminal proceedings for Phillip Garrido had been suspended for months while he was evaluated and eventually deemed competent to stand trial.
The couple was ordered to return to court on April 7.
Pierson has proposed a sentence of 180 years to life for Nancy Garrido, and more than 563 years to life - the maximum if he is convicted of all charges - for Phillip Garrido, a convicted rapist who was on parole when Dugard was snatched form a school bus stop in 1991.
Pierson believes that Nancy Garrido bears responsibility for crimes committed because she alone imprisoned Dugard for 42 days in 1993 when her husband was in federal custody on a parole violation.
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"Not only was Nancy Garrido directly involved in the kidnapping of Jaycee back in 1991, but she atively participated in videotaping young children before and after the 1991 abduction," Pierson said. "So, having viewed all of the evidence and videos in this case I will answer Mr. Tapson's question - No, I do not think that Nancy Garrido deserves my compassion."
Phillip Garrido has expressed a willingness to take a harsher penalty if it means his wife would get off with a lighter sentence. As Nancy Garrido was led from the courtroom Thursday, she turned and gave her husband a warm look and smile.
The two, who have been prohibited from speaking on the phone while jailed, exchanged "I love yous."
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