By David Madden

MT. HOLLY, N.J. (CBS) — The murder of a South Jersey softball star 2½ years ago has resulted in a second guilty plea — and increased prison time for the killer — after a public campaign to dismiss the original plea bargain as too lenient.

There was no question that Stephen Headley stabbed Nicole Ayres some three dozen times after she picked him up in Medford, NJ (see related story), although Headley’s mother, Cammy, still can’t come to terms as to why.
“I guess I’ll never get no answers because he doesn’t understand what happened either. I mean, he had blacked out, from what he had told me,” Cammy Headley told KYW Newsradio today.
New Jersey Superior Court judge James Palmer was ready to hand down a 30-year prison term until he was bombarded with messages from Ayres’ family and friends insisting on life (see related story).

What they got in the end was 50 years in state prison.  This convicted sex offender won’t be eligible for parole before he turns 70.  And some suggest that is, in effect, a life sentence.