The man authorities believed killed the Goggin family in 2011 was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison.  Kevin Harper was not sentenced for the murders, but for a plea bargain on lesser weapons and stolen property charges.

Last month Yakima County Court Judge Ruth Reukauf accepted the plea agreement, and refused a prosecutor request to remove the plea which would allow the state to charge Harper with the murders.  Last week an appeals rejected the prosecution’s effort to have the plea agreement revoked in an emergency stay.

In February of 2011 Bill and Pauline Goggin and Bill's 98 year old mother Bettye were murdered in a West Valley gated community.

Prosecutors have said they compiled new evidence pointing to Harper as the homicide suspect, but Reukauf ruled that the state’s own mistakes had imperiled the case.

Under the plea deal with Harper, accessory charges against his ex-wife also were dismissed.

Yakima County Prosecutor says he's not giving up.  He says he will again try to have the plea agreement nullified by the State Court of Appeals.

 

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