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Wednesday, November 26, 1997

Accomplice in 'Uncle Hilty' case pleads guilty to kidnapping

CONROE, Texas (AP) -- A woman accused of helping in the 1995 abduction and murder of a 12-year-old boy has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading no contest to kidnapping.

Irene V. Flores was originally charged with capital murder in the death of McKay Everett, a seventh-grader snatched from his home on Sept. 12, 1995, but prosecutors reduced the charge to kidnapping.

Ms. Flores, a 55-year-old mother of four, pleaded Monday before state District Judge Fred Edwards. Edwards told her he considered her plea to be guilty rather than no contest, and imposed the 25-year term. She will not be eligible for parole for at least 12-1/2 years.

Ms. Flores was accused of placing a ransom call to the victim's parents on the night of the kidnapping, telling Carl Everett he must pay $500,000 to get his son back.

The boy's body was later found in a swamp about 15 miles east of Lafayette, La. He had been beaten and shot to death.

Hilton Crawford, a longtime friend of the Everett family, is on death row for the killing after his 1996 capital murder conviction.

Prosecutors said the 58-year-old, whom the boy knew as "Uncle Hilty," fell on hard financial times before deciding to kidnap his friend's son. He killed the boy when the plan began to unravel.

Ms. Flores was on parole after a drug conviction when she placed the ransom call. She has maintained since her arrest that Crawford duped her into making the call and that she thought McKay would not be harmed.

McKay's father addressed Ms. Flores in the courtroom, telling her she was as much to blame as Crawford for the boy's death.

"Hilton killed McKay," said Carl Everett. "Irene Flores can sit here today and plead no contest to a lesser charge, but she is just as guilty of killing McKay as Hilton."

"You took an active part in killing a child. You crossed over a boundary that you can never come back from. You are ... no good."

Prosecutors said the Everett family had agreed to the lesser charges for Ms. Flores.

"There's no way to put a measure of satisfaction on a child's death," said prosecutor Mike Tiffin. "The family couldn't put a measure of satisfaction on it. I can't.

"It's just a closure on an ugly chapter of events here in Montgomery County."