During an undercover police investigation, a former Lacombe-area man admitted to killing two men in his trailer on an acreage outside Tees in 2008, court heard today.
A three-week trial was scheduled to start today with Morris William Phillips, 49, facing two counts each of first-degree and/or second-degree murder and committing an indignity to human remains.
Instead, he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and two counts of committing an indignity to human remains in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench.
The bodies of Thomas Joseph Shaughnessy, 46, of Red Deer, and Thomas Robert Howells Jr., 40, of the Wetaskiwin and Red Deer areas, were found on May 30, 2008, by a farmer working in his field near Lamont, east of Edmonton.
According to the agreed statement of facts presented in court, Phillips killed Shaughnessy and Howells on April 7, 2008, after threatening him unless he handed over money and property.
Sentencing recommendations by the Crown and defence were underway today.