Convicted murderer Mark Sievers, 51, appears in court Friday to learn if he gets a life or death sentence. A jury recommended last month that the defendant get the death penalty for orchestrating the murder of his wife, Dr. Teresa Sievers, 46. The judge’s decision is set to happen at 10:30 am ET.
Prosecutors said he recruited childhood friend Curtis Wayne Wright, 51, to do the deed. Wright in turn got Jimmy Ray Rodgers, 29, to help out.
Wright and Rodgers ambushed Dr. Sievers when she returned home alone from a family vacation, prosecutors said. She was beaten to death. Wright flipped during the ensuing investigation, pleaded guilty to second-degree in exchange for a possible 25-year sentence, and agreed to testify against his co-defendants. Rodgers was charged with first-degree murder, but convicted of second-degree murder at trial. Mark Sievers was the last to face responsibility for what happened to his wife.
[Mugshot via Lee County Sheriff’s Office]