TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A man who killed his estranged wife and his stepdaughter with an ax has been sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.
Charles Nettlebeck of Orting was earlier convicted of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the March 2009 deaths of 52-year-old Barbara Jo Nettlebeck, and 33-year-old Bretta Joan Hawkins.
According to court documents, Barbara Nettlebeck was in the process of getting a divorce but the man had gone to his wife’s home to participate in a garage sale. Prosecutors allege his wife said something to him and he picked up an ax and struck her with it. He then found Hawkins and killed her. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty because of the man’s history of mental illness.
