2nd defendant in Santa Clara murder case takes plea deal

2nd defendant in Santa Clara murder case takes plea deal

(Washington County Sheriff's Office)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Another plea deal has apparently been reached in the case involving the kidnapping and killing of a Santa Clara father in 2016.

A jury trial for Tammy Renee Freeman, 54, that was scheduled to start Wednesday was cancelled. Freeman is charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary, both first-degree felonies; and theft, a second-degree felony.

Gary Pendleton, Freeman's attorney, told the court that an agreement had been reached and that the state would be filing amended charges and requesting a pre-sentence report, according to court documents. As part of the deal, Freeman will be given credit for time served, court records indicate.

Freeman will be back in court on March 6.

She is one of three people accused of kidnapping David Heisler, 30, of Santa Clara, from his home on June 27, 2016, and leaving him to die in a remote area near the Utah-Arizona border.

Heisler was awarded permanent custody of his daughter — who was 6 at the time — on June 13, 2016. Court documents say the girl's mother, Kelley Marie Perry, 32, was extremely upset by the judge's decision.

On June 27, Francis Lee McCard, 56, of Washington City, and Perry were driven to Heisler's Santa Clara home by Freeman, where Heisler was kidnaped and then taken away in his own car, according to the charges.

Heisler's vehicle was found abandoned a few days later in Beaver Dam, Arizona. A bullet casing was found inside the car, as well as blood on the car's exterior.

Seven weeks later, in August, Heisler's decomposed body was found by a geologist near Mount Trumbull, Arizona, along the Arizona Strip.

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Perry, McCard and Freeman were charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies, and theft, a second-degree felony, in Washington County, and were later charged with murder and kidnapping in Arizona.

Earlier this month, felony information was filed in federal court against McCard accusing him of kidnapping resulting in death, and a change of plea hearing was held the next day where a universal resolution for all of McCard's state and federal charges was reached.

In addition to pleading guilty to his federal charge, McCard pleaded guilty to charges in Arizona of murder, a second-degree felony, and kidnapping with aggravating factors, according to court records.

As part of the plea deal, when McCard is sentenced at a later date, he is expected to receive 29 years in prison on the federal indictment, 25 years for the state murder conviction, and 21 years for the state kidnapping conviction. Also as part of the plea deal, a judge is expected to order all the sentences be served consecutively, meaning he will spend 75 years in prison before he is released.

A preliminary hearing for Perry is scheduled in St. George for April 9.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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