BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the killing of a former Arizona power company executive, his wife and their son at their Boise home.
Adam Dees, 22, of Nampa appeared Friday in 4th District Court to enter his plea to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of robbery. In exchange, prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty. Instead, they agreed Dees should serve life in prison without parole for the murders and 25 years for the robbery charge.
“Sir, I killed three people,” Dees told 4th District Judge Samuel Hoagland.
Prosecutors allege Dees killed Theodore M. Welp, 80; Delores Elaine Welp, 77; and Thomas P. Welp, 52 on March 8 or 9. The bodies were found March 10.
Dees is said to have acted alone and had not known the victims. His attorneys did not immediately return a reporter’s calls.
Hoagland accepted Dees’ guilty pleas and scheduled sentencing for Aug. 28.
“Our family needs to heal, and our family needs time together, living our lives in order to heal wholly,” George Welp, son of Theodore and Elaine and brother of Thomas, told the media after Dees’ plea.
The Welps formerly lived in Arizona, where Theodore Welp was the chief of Tucson Electric Power Co. in the 1980s.
An April 8 grand jury indictment says all three were shot in the head and beaten with a baseball bat, and Thomas Welp was stabbed in the neck. All three bodies were found on a bed.
Authorities revealed Friday that Dees told an online gaming friend that he killed three people, adding that it “got physical” when they refused to give him PIN numbers to their credit cards.
Dees was later found with the credit cards and a 9 mm handgun. He tried to sell Elaine Welp’s engagement ring, which was recovered at a local jeweler.
