HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The 52-year-old man who entered a “no contest” plea and was found guilty of “conspiracy to commit first-degree murder” was sentenced Friday to the maximum he could be under sentencing guidelines. District Judge Tim Chambers sentenced Billy J. Craig Jr., to 184-months, or just over 15-years in prison.

The judge denied the downward departure sought by the defense calling the sentence “totally appropriate.” This after emotional pleas from the family of Jennifer Heckel who told the judge they don’t believe she was murdered, they believe she was executed. And that it was the planning by Craig that led to her death. Heckel was killed on June 14, 2011.

Defense Attorney Carl Maughn argued that Craig played a minor role in the killing and that he accepted responsibility when he entered a plea in the case. But, District Attorney Keith Schroeder commenting on the defense contention that Craig acccepted responsibility. He asked, “on what day?” Maughn also argued that the states case was weak after his clients statements to law enforcement were suppressed. Schroeder argued that the criminal history of the defendant goes back a long way and believes that Craig planned for the killing and that he drove the vehicle to the Heckel home, the wrong home and killed an innocent woman with her young son in the next room.

Judge Chambers took exception to the notion by the defense that he accepted responsibility by entering a plea in the case. Judge Chambers says taking a plea isn’t accepting responsibility.

Craig family members told the their loss and how this was more then just a murder, it was a home invasion and execution. Heckel’s mother was to upset to even read her statement, with someone else reading it for her. In that statement she tells the court of her grandson’s last memory of his mother being her laying in a pool of her own blood.

Craig in addressing the court never apologized for his part in the killing, but did tell the family her was sorry for their loss.

Craig was found guilty of conspiring with Charles Christopher Logsdon to rob and kill another woman over drugs and money and went to the wrong house when they killed Heckel while her 10-year-old son was in the next room. In return for Craig’s plea, the state agreed to dismiss all other charges pending in the murder case, dismiss two pending cases against him, one involving distribution of drugs and the other, a financial fraud crime. They also recommended that a pending contempt of court allegation be dismissed.

Logsdon was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and other related charges and received a 73-year sentence. His case is currently on appeal.