A 27-year-old suspected pleaded guilty Friday to the horrific homicide he committed last year when he stabbed two people to death, including a teenage girl, dismembered their bodies and then tried to dissolve them in tubs filled with acid in the basement of a home.
Augustus Standingrock’s plea was part of a deal with prosecutors, who will recommend the 26-year-old be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty to deliberate homicide and accountability to deliberate homicide in the deaths last year of Marilyn Pickett, 15, and Jackson Wiles, 24.
his attorneys filed a 122-page motion on Wednesday seeking a change in venue for his trial due to extensive media coverage of the case.
the two victims were killed at the Missoula house of co-defendant Tiffanie Pierce, who still faces charges of deliberate homicide. She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in March.
During Friday’s court hearing, Standingrock told District Judge James Wheelis that he stabbed Wiles and that Pierce killed Pickett.
Standingrock and Pierce dismembered the bodies and tried to dissolve them in tubs filled with chemicals that she bought, prosecutors said. Officials said the coroner needed dental records and DNA to identify the bodies.
Investigators also found knives and an ax covered in blood and human tissue.
Standingrock had been scheduled for trial on Jan. 4. Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst previously said she would not seek the death penalty.
