By Bill Mich and Kye Parsons
SNOW HILL, Md.- Thirty years behind bars. That is what 24-year-old Justin Michael Hadel is facing in Worcester County after pleading guilty Friday to the 2007 murder of Christine Sheddy.
Sheddy, of Milford, Del., went missing from a Pocomoke City home in November 2007. The skeletal remains of the 26-year-old mother of three were found in March 2010 buried in a shallow grave behind a bed and breakfast in downtown Snow Hill.
Hadel, of College Station, Texas, was arrested and convicted for the crime in 2012 and was to serve life without parole. However, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled in Hadel's favor to reopen the case because Hadel had requested a new attorney before his trial but was denied.
However, rather than go to trial, Hadel agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder. In exchange, the state will seek a life term with all but 30 years suspended when Hadel is sentenced on April 9.
Two alleged accomplices in the Sheddy case, Clarence Jackson and Tia Johnson, were given prison sentences in 2012 after being charged with being accessories after the fact in that they helped to move and conceal the victim's body after her murder.
