A man pleaded no contest Monday to voluntary manslaughter charges in the shooting deaths of two people in Foothill Farms more than four years ago.
Thomas Michael Meece, 49, was facing a retrial on murder charges in the Feb. 5, 2008, shotgun killings of Albert L. Parson, 43, and Amber L. Halvorson, 40. Meece was charged under the theory that he aided and abetted the alleged gunman, Allan Winton Eisman, 31, who hanged himself in the downtown jail nearly two months after the shootings. Authorities said Eisman had suspected Parson of raping his girlfiend.
A Sacramento Superior Court jury failed to reach a verdict in Meece's 2009 trial. Jury selection was scheduled to get under way Monday in front of Judge Steve White when Meece entered his plea to the reduced charge.
White scheduled Meece's sentencing for Aug. 10.
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