Guilty Plea In Grave Digging

SALEM, Ore. - A Hubbard man has pleaded guilty to helping his friend dig a grave and bury a murdered teen-age girl last year.

Dustin Lee Atkins, 20, admitted that he helped James Michael Anderson, 18, bury the body of Anderson's girlfriend. Anderson pleaded guilty to killing Mariah Pelker-Ingram and received a life prison term.

Under a plea agreement, Atkins faces 11 to 12 1/2 years in prison. A month after the killing, Atkins helped authorities find the grave and the weapon.

Atkins told Marion County Circuit Judge Albin Norblad that he helped Anderson dig a grave several days before the killing. Atkins said he and Anderson picked up Pelker-Ingram from her job at the Woodburn Safeway store and took her to the wooded area. There, Anderson stabbed her numerous times and hit her on the head with a shovel.

Pelker-Ingram, 17, was three months pregnant when she died. Prosecutors theorized Anderson killed her because she planned to ask him for child-support payments. Anderson was hoping to get a basketball scholarship to attend college.