Plea bargaining

Echard predicted Owens would wait until the final August 28 deadline to decide on the plea.

“She's going to wait until the last minute because she's just wants to drag this out because she knows that it only harms us”

Love Trapped: Not Over Yet | EP 15 (Jul 9, 2026) · Listen from 31:46

Echard relayed that Owens's lawyer said she would already have accepted a plea if it carried no jail or prison time.

“Laura's lawyer said if there was no jail time or prison time that could be attached to the plea, she would have taken the plea already”

Love Trapped: Not Over Yet | EP 15 (Jul 9, 2026) · Listen from 30:45

Echard argued the defense's request for more time was an extension of Owens's history of delay tactics.

“I'm all for due process, but to me, this just feels like an extension of her tactic carried out by him to extend it”

Love Trapped: Not Over Yet | EP 15 (Jul 9, 2026) · Listen from 14:31

Echard argued that Owens's legal strategy consists of deliberately delaying proceedings.

“I didn't really expect an answer because Laura's tactics are delay, delay, delay. And that's just the way that she operates”

Love Trapped: All the Best | EP 12 (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 3:01

Coleman predicts prosecutors would be strongly incentivized to offer Robinson a plea deal removing the death penalty.

“they would be very incentivized to offer him a deal if i'm right and and he was involved in some capacity that would earn him a life sentence anyway”

Danny Jones Podcast: #433 - Charlie Kirk's Autopsy, Egyptian Planes & Erika Kirk's Darkest Secret | Baron Coleman (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 2:48:26

Lynette Sharp described agonizing over cooperating, fearing being seen as a snitch while her family begged her to plead.

“I can't talk. I can't plead. I can't like that. I'd be a snitch. I'd be a traitor. My family was begging me to do it”

This American Life: 891: The Test Case (Jul 13, 2026) · Listen from 51:48

Eiglarsh argued Robinson's expressed remorse makes it more likely he would accept a life-sentence plea deal if offered.

“it's more likely, in my opinion, that he would accept something like that because of that remark, that he felt sorry for what he did”

The Megyn Kelly Show: The Full BOMBSHELL Lance Twiggs Video, Plus New Robinson Texts Revealed, with Geragos, Murphy, Aronberg, Eiglarsh, and Frei | Ep. 1356 (Jul 9, 2026) · Listen from 2:12:28

Flowers noted that Shepard's plea meant he never had to testify about what happened, leaving the family with unanswered questions.

“The plea also means that Dana doesn't have to ever get on the stand or make his case for what exactly happened”

Crime Junkie: MURDERED: Carmen Van Huss (Jul 6, 2026) · Listen from 48:03

Weeks contends the Justice Department's high conviction rate results from jailing defendants before trial to coerce pleas.

“that's why the Department of Justice has a 97 percent success rate in convictions is because they break the law”

Digital Social Hour: How Joby Weeks Survived a Billion-Dollar Crypto Case... | DSH #2040 (Jun 30, 2026) · Listen from 16:28

Young noted that the expired offer was likely the prosecution's most lenient and that Owens can still plead guilty until the verdict.

“The plea deal that expired on April 30th was the prosecution's first offer, and likely its most lenient one”

Love Trapped: All the Best | EP 12 (May 7, 2026) · Listen from 4:01

Kim Richardson recounted that her daughter refused the plea offer because she would not plead to something she did not do.

“I'm not going to play to something that I didn't do. And in my heart, I got sick, but it has to be her decision”

48 Hours: The Case Against Brooke Skylar Richardson (Apr 2, 2026) · Listen from 23:24