FORSYTH(AP) - One of five people charged in the abduction and killings of a southwest Missouri couple has pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
KOLR-TV reports 26-year-old Phillip Friend pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts each of felonious restraint and second-degree murder.
Taney County Circuit Judge Mark Orr sentenced Friend to seven years each on the restraint counts. Friend will be sentenced later on the murder charges.
Rebecca and Russell Porter vanished in April 2011 from their home in the Greene County town of Willard. They were taken to rural Taney County, where they were shot and buried.
Prosecutors allege that suspect Robert Campbell, an uncle of Russell Porter, had a dispute with his nephew and offered money to others to kill the couple.
Campbell and the other remaining suspects are awaiting trial.