Hoffman pleads guilty in deaths of three found in tree

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (AP) -- A Columbus-area man will spend life in prison with no chance for parole in the deaths of three people whose remains were found in a hollow tree.

Thirty-year-old Matthew Hoffman was sentenced after he pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated murder and other charges.

Prosecutors in central Ohio's Knox County did not pursue a death sentence at the wishes of the victims' families.

Hoffman was charged with aggravated murder, burglary, kidnapping and rape.

An indictment alleged the unemployed tree-cutter killed a Tina Herrmann, her son Kody Maynard, and neighbor Stephanie Sprang during a November 10 burglary last year.

Sarah Maynard was later found bound and gagged but alive in Hoffman's basement.

Maynard was in the courtroom yesterday. In a statement read by the prosecutor, the teen said she's no longer scared of Hoffman.

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