A former professor at Eastern Kentucky University has reached a plea agreement regarding the 2019 murder of his wife, averting a trial that was scheduled to start next week.
Glenn Jackson did not confess to the murder of his wife, Ella Jackson. Instead, he opted for an Alford plea, a legal maneuver where the defendant concedes that the evidence could likely lead to a conviction at trial but does not admit guilt, according to a report by WLEX.
Jackson agreed to the Alford plea for a manslaughter charge while pleading guilty to charges of corpse abuse and evidence tampering. This agreement could result in a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
With credit for six years already spent under house arrest, Jackson may serve less than eight more years in confinement.
Ella Jackson, who was 47 at the time, also taught at Eastern Kentucky University, as previously noted by CrimeOnline. Her husband reported her missing on October 22, 2019, claiming she was last seen two days before. Curiously, she vanished, leaving her cellphone and her 6-year-old son behind.
During the investigation into her disappearance, detectives uncovered that she had consulted a domestic violence advocate shortly before going missing. This finding led them to secure a search warrant for the couple’s home and vehicle.
That’s when they found evidence of foul play, secret recordings of Ella Jackson admitting she was afraid of her husband, and a significant amount of her blood in the trunk of Glenn Jackson’s vehicle.
She had also, apparently, secretly made recordings of arguments the couple had and told several friends that if anything ever happened to her, Glenn Jackson would be responsible.
Glenn Jackson was ultimately arrested in April 2020 and charged with murder/domestic violence and tampering with physical evidence. A week after his arrest, investigators found Ella Jackson’s partial skeletal remains in a wooded area near property he owned, WLEX said.
A medical examiner determined she died from a homicide but was unable to determine her exact cause of death, although she did have a skull fracture.
Jason Hans, Ella Jackson’s ex-husband who has been raising her child since Glenn Jackson’s arrest, told WLEX the Alford plea was disturbing.
“He will end up having done about 40 percent of his sentence sitting at his victim’s house, which is incredibly frustrating,” Hans said.
But, he said, “Justice will be protecting women and children before they’re harmed, not punishing people years after they’re harmed.”
Jackson will continue to live in his victim’s home on house arrest until he’s sentenced next month.
