Preston Lord murder: One of the suspects, William Hines, pleads guilty to manslaughter
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. - One of the seven suspects accused in the 2023 death of East Valley teen Preston Lord pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Tuesday.
The backstory:
William Hines was accused of taking part in the deadly beating of the 16-year-old at a Halloween party in Queen Creek on Oct. 28, 2023. Lord died two days later at the hospital.
Hines, along with six others, were accused of first-degree murder, among other charges related to the incident. They all pleaded not guilty.
William Owen Hines
What we know:
On March 4, Hines pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a reduced charge. A kidnapping charge was dismissed.
The six other suspects in Lord's death are Treston Billey, Jacob Meisner, Talan Renner, Taylor Sherman, Dominic Turner and Talyn Vigil.
They're all on trial together, but at times, the suspects make court appearances separately.
With the manslaughter charge, Hines could face at least 10 years in prison.
Preston Lord murder suspects
Thousands of pages of evidence, hundreds of videos
In a previous court appearance, the defense attorneys said they had a mountain of evidence to pour through.
One lawyer claimed she received 6,000 pages, 200 body camera videos and 400 potential witnesses. Prosecutors said there are hours of video, too.
Suspect's other cases:
This wasn't the only case Hines was involved in.
Also on March 4, Hines pleaded guilty to counts of aggravated assault in three other unrelated cases.
Those crimes happened on Nov. 22, 2022, Dec. 2, 2022 and July 6, 2023.