MANCHESTER, Tenn. (AP) - A former Army recruiter has been sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole in the deaths of a Manchester mother and her two young sons.
Matthew Perkins pleaded guilty Monday to murder charges for the September 2010 deaths of Stephanie Hershman and her sons, 3-year-old Jathan and 1-year-old Jaylon.
Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty, but the district attorney general's office said in a statement that they accepted the plea agreement based on uncertainties about whether a jury would unanimously impose the death penalty.
Prosecutors said the victims' family members approved the plea agreement.
Investigators have said they found the three bodies stuffed in trash bags inside a bedroom closet of Hershman's home.
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