Ripon, CA woman's killer gets life after revealing dump site

[Ian David]

Ripon woman's killer gets life after revealing dump site

he Associated Press
Article Launched: 07/17/2007 01:34:28 PM PDT

STOCKTON, Calif.—A registered sex offender pleaded guilty to the 2005 murder of a Ripon woman in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Roy Gerald Smith, 45, was facing a September death penalty trial in the slaying of Mary Morino-Starkey, 46, who disappeared on June 15, 2005.

In a court hearing Monday, attorneys revealed that Smith, a twice-convicted sex-offender, led prosecutors last week to the site where he dumped Morino-Starkey's body, down a steep embankment in remote Amador County.

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While awaiting trial, Smith befriended Randall Radic, a Ripon pastor charged with selling his congregation's church to buy a BMW. Radic said that as he gained Smith's confidence, Smith confessed. and Radic was later sprung from prison in exchange for agreeing to testify against his acquaintance.

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