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| Facebook photo |
| Jesseka Musson and Eric Dante |
The Boundary County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call at about 10:45 a.m. Monday, May 1, requesting law enforcement at the Cedar Court Trailer Park on McCall Street in Bonners Ferry. On arrival, they found Dante on his knees in the driveway, Musson dead in their bedroom of a gunshot wound to the head.
Dante, 36 years old at the time, was charged with first degree murder, defined at Idaho Code 18-4003, in part, as "(murder) which is perpetrated by any kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing," and bond was set at $1-million.
While Rule 11 refers to the section of Idaho Criminal Rules governing pleas, it is more familiarly known, especially among savvy defendants, as a binding plea with the prosecution in which the judge is bound by the agreement when it comes to sentencing.
The judge doesn't have to accept the sentence agreed upon by defendant and prosecutor, but in a binding agreement, must reject the plea, enabling the defendant to withdraw the declaration of guilt and go to trial.
Under Idaho law, first degree murder is punishable only by death or life in prison. If the murder doesn't rise to many defined levels in IC 18-4003, including that listed above, it is second degree murder in the State of Idaho, punishable by imprisonment not less than ten years to life.
In Idaho, prison sentences can be divided into two portions, determinate, which must be served in prison, and indeterminate, a period which may be served either in prison or on parole.
Dante has been ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, and a pre-sentence hearing has been set for 10 a.m. Thursday, March 8.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but agrees that the evidence in the case will likely result in a jury reaching a finding of guilt.