An Oklahoma couple has been sentenced to a combined 60 years in prison for a fatal 2011 kidnapping of a man whose body was dumped in Texarkana.
Leslie Larcade, 49, and Chrystal Larcade, 38, of Broken Bow, Okla., were sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge said in a statement.
The Larcades were each sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole and five years of supervised release, the news releases states.
According to court documents cited in the release, the Larcades on Aug. 13, 2011, handcuffed 45-year-old Shannon Deval Watkins, restrained him with a rope and duct tape, placed him in a vehicle and drove him from McCurtain County in Oklahoma to Miller County in Arkansas. The Larcades had also placed a noose around the Watkins' neck, causing injuries which resulted in his death.
When Chrystal Larcade was arrested, she told police that she and her husband kidnapped Watkins to get a $1,000 bounty offered on Facebook by Wayne Lackey, a former Texarkana pawnshop employee, the Texarkana-Gazette previously reported. When the Larcades were unsuccessful in delivering Watkins to Lackey, they dumped Watkins' body at the Texarkana Speedway in Miller County, the release states.
The Larcades fled the scene but were arrested after a high speed pursuit. Their vehicle contained a blood stain that matched the DNA of the victim, according to the release.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment Jan. 16, 2012 charging one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and one count of kidnapping resulting in death.
The couple pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping in November 2013.
U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey, who presided over the sentencing Monday, also recommended that the Larcades be candidates for the Intensive Drug Treatment Program while incarcerated and ordered that the couple pay $585 jointly and severally in restitution, the release states.
The Miller County sheriff’s office, Arkansas State Police, the McCurtain County sheriff’s office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case.