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On Wednesday, an ex-professor from Eastern Kentucky University accepted a plea deal concerning the 2019 murder of his wife, effectively halting the trial scheduled for the following week.
Despite the serious charge, Glenn Jackson did not confess to murdering Ella Jackson. Instead, he chose an Alford plea, a complex legal maneuver where a defendant concedes that a guilty verdict is probable in court without admitting to the crime, according to a report by WLEX.
Jackson’s Alford plea was for manslaughter, alongside an admission of guilt for abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence. This plea could lead to a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
Factoring in the six years he has already spent under house arrest, Jackson may be released in less than eight years.
Earning her own tenure at Eastern Kentucky University, Ella Jackson was reported missing on October 22, 2019, by her husband, who claimed he last saw her two days prior. Her sudden disappearance was marked by the unsettling detail of her leaving behind her phone and their 6-year-old son, as previously highlighted by CrimeOnline.
As investigators looked into her disappearance, they learned that she had seen a domestic violence advocate shortly before her disappearance, a discovery that prompted them to obtain a search warrant for the home and vehicle.s
That’s when they found evidence of foul play, secret recordings of Ella Jackson admitting she was afraid of her husband, and a significant amount of her blood in the trunk of Glenn Jackson’s vehicle.
She had also, apparently, secretly made recordings of arguments the couple had and told several friends that if anything ever happened to her, Glenn Jackson would be responsible.
Glenn Jackson was ultimately arrested in April 2020 and charged with murder/domestic violence and tampering with physical evidence. A week after his arrest, investigators found Ella Jackson’s partial skeletal remains in a wooded area near property he owned, WLEX said.
A medical examiner determined she died from a homicide but was unable to determine her exact cause of death, although she did have a skull fracture.
Jason Hans, Ella Jackson’s ex-husband who has been raising her child since Glenn Jackson’s arrest, told WLEX the Alford plea was disturbing.
“He will end up having done about 40 percent of his sentence sitting at his victim’s house, which is incredibly frustrating,” Hans said.
But, he said, “Justice will be protecting women and children before they’re harmed, not punishing people years after they’re harmed.”
Jackson will continue to live in his victim’s home on house arrest until he’s sentenced next month.