Most Popular Archives Shop
OKC, 88°F, Partly Cloudy, Radar Loop | More Weather






View more >
Fri December 8, 2006

Liberal man sentenced to more than 20 years for kids' deaths

Related Information

Crime Links
> NewsOK crime news
> Crimetracker
> Cold Case OK
> Inside the OSBI Lab
Related Searches
 
 
Top Jobs
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
By The Associated Press

LIBERAL, Kan. - Robert Fox was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison Thursday in the 2004 deaths of his two young sons, who were from Oklahoma.


ADVERTISEMENT


Fox, 56, pleaded guilty in July as part of a deal to two counts of reckless second-degree murder in the March 27, 2004, camper fire in Liberal that killed Chance, 6, and Rowdy, 4.

Seward County District Court Judge Tom Smith on Thursday sentenced Fox to 10 years and three months imprisonment on each guilty plea, the maximum possible. The terms were to be served consecutively.

In September, Smith denied Fox's request to withdraw his guilty pleas in the deaths of his two sons, who were killed when the camper they were sleeping in caught fire.

The boys were visiting Fox from Hooker, Okla., where they lived with their mother, when their father's camper caught fire. The elder Fox escaped with burns.

Before pleading guilty to two counts of reckless second-degree murder, Fox had faced charges of capital murder, which is punishable by death, and first-degree murder.

At an Aug. 29 hearing on his motion to withdraw the pleas, Fox testified that he had been taken off sleep medication and was sleep deprived in the days leading up to the plea deal, which came as the two sides were selecting jurors for a trial. He also said he felt pressured to agree to the final plea because of a deadline prosecutors had imposed for accepting it.

In his ruling in September, Smith said he doubted Fox's claims that he was sleep deprived and felt pressured when he made the plea deal. Smith noted that Fox and his lawyers had been talking about a plea agreement at least since February.

Multi Page