AN AMERICAN TEENAGER, who ‘no longer wanted to be friends’ with another girl has been sentenced to life in prison with the chance for parole in the stabbing death of her one-time best friend.
Shelia Eddy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder under a plea agreement in Monongalia County Circuit Court.
Judge Russell Clawges on Friday sentenced Eddy to life with mercy, meaning the 18-year-old Morgantown woman would be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
Under the plea agreement, a kidnapping charge and two counts of conspiracy were dropped.
Star City, West Virginia 16-year-old Skylar Neese was lured out of her house in July 2012, stabbed to death and her body hidden across the Pennsylvania border.
Prosecutors say Eddy and friend Rachel Shoaf plotted the murder, though the motive has never been revealed. Shoaf awaits sentencing.
Under a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend mercy, meaning that the 18-year-old Morgantown woman would be eligible for parole after serving 15 years. In return for Eddy’s plea, a kidnapping charge and two counts of conspiracy will be dropped.
Eddy, wearing glasses and an orange prison suit with her hair pulled into a ponytail, was visibly upset after entering the courtroom and her voice broke when giving short answers to Judge Russell Clawges, who then asked her how she pleaded.
“Guilty,” Eddy said, her voice cracking.
Prosecutors say Eddy and another friend, Rachel Shoaf, lured Neese out of her ground-floor bedroom in Star City in July 2012, drove her to a secluded spot near the unincorporated West Virginia community of Macdale, then stabbed her to death at an agreed-upon moment.
Authorities said the girls covered the body of the University High honors student with branches when they couldn’t bury her, and it lay in a wooded area across the Pennsylvania border for months.
The break in the case came in January 2013. Prosecutors say that’s when Shoaf finally cracked and told investigators the truth — and where to find the body.
Prosecutors never divulged a motive. Shoaf told police the girls no longer wanted to be friends with Neese.
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