FAIRMONT, W.Va. — One of the men charged with killing three Fairmont residents in Windmill Park in 1974 pleaded guilty Thursday to lesser charges.
Eddie Washington, 60, has been on trial this week for the deaths of Guy Lester Phillips, 20, his wife, Wanda Jane Phillips, 19, and Billy Ray Cobb, 27. Police say the three victims were shot execution style.
Washington had denied the charges and Thursday took and offer from Marion County prosecutors and pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit a felony. He was immediately sentenced to 2 to 10 years in prison.
The prosecution called five witnesses to the stand Wednesday including a woman who had been Washington’s girlfriend for a time in 1974. But Patty Jean Cosner could not remember many of the details surrounding the deaths and Washington’s actions. Cosner said she had been recently diagnosed with dementia.
When Washington was questioned by police in 1978 he said Phillip Bush pulled the trigger. Bush, who is in prison on another murder conviction, is scheduled to go on trial at a later date.