FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A Fort Campbell soldier has admitted to having his ex-wife killed and to helping hide her body.
Sgt. Jamal Williams-McCray entered into a plea agreement during a hearing Wednesday at the Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, the Leaf Chronicle reported.
Williams-McCray pleaded guilty to charges including premeditated murder in the death of Pfc. Shadow McClaine. In exchange for the plea, he won’t face the death penalty. He is also pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit murder, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to the report.
Another soldier, Spc. Charles Robinson III, pleaded guilty previously to charges including murder in the case and was sentenced to 25 years.
Robinson said McClaine’s ex-husband offered to pay him $10,000 to kill her and help hide the body.
McClaine disappeared in September 2016. Her car was found 11 days later in Nashville. Her skeletal remains were found the following January and flown home to Yuba City, California.
Williams-McCray explained on Wednesday what led up to the crime. He said on the day of the slaying, he talked with McClaine to plan, he told her, the murder of Williams-McCray’s girlfriend. He and McClaine went out to look at sites where the girlfriend could be killed and buried, he said.
As they looked at a field, they saw Robinson, who was pretending to be the land owner. Williams-McCray left them to return to his truck while Robinson killed McClaine by stabbing her, he said.
McClaine’s mother, London Wegrzyn, says the family is “glad we are getting justice finally.”
