AN Alabama jailbreaker has pleaded guilty to the carjacking death of a British army major who was killed while on his way to a conference in New Mexico.
Roger Dale Yeadon, 25, admitted carjacking resulting in death at a US District Court on Tuesday.
He could now face a maximum of life in prison for killing Major David Nichols, the vice commander of the Defence School of Languages, who had been visiting training schools in Albuquerque and Texas when he disappeared in May 1996.
The FBI arrested Yeadon in Indiana two months later after Major Nichols' rental car, with his passport inside, was found submerged in a lake near Terre Haute, Indiana.
Major Nichols' decomposed body was found in a remote desert meadow south of Villanueva, near Las Vegas, New Mexico on September 25 last year - about four months after he disappeared.
Officials said he was apparently killed by two gunshots to the head that had been fired at close range.
Yeadon, who was in prison in Alabama for burglary, was being taken to court with another prisoner, Michael Wayne Thompson, when they escaped in May last year.
Thompson was charged in the Nichols case two weeks ago.
Yeadon has claimed that during the carjacking Thompson shot Major Nichols and then hid his body.
Major Nichols, 53, was reported missing after he failed to show up at the language conference he was travelling to in Alburquerque.
Based at the Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Major Nichols had recently separated from his wife when he went to America. The couple have three children.-AP
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article