According to Nancy Garrido’s attorney, Nancy and her husband Phillip have given complete confessions. They are accused of the kidnapping and rape of Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped as she waited for a school bus in front of her family’s South Lake Tahoe house when she was 11 years old and held in captivity along with her two daughters who were fathered by Phillip Garrido for 18 years.

Apparently the confessions were given in anticipation of a plea bargain that would prevent a trial. Phillip Garrido is facing 440 years and Nancy is facing 241 years.

It is hard to imagine what a plea bargain would look like: each of them will only spend 150 years in prison? Perhaps they will agree to a plea that keeps Phillip in prison for the rest of his life and gives Nancy some chance of getting out of prison before she dies of old age. Certainly no judge is going to agree to a plea bargain that lets Phillip ever get out of prison.

Allowing the Garridos to give a confession prior to a plea agreement is a desperate move on their attorneys’ part. Once you give a confession you don’t have much choice but to plead guilty. The confession itself is admissible at trial. It is powerful evidence and it will not take much more evidence to convict. Since Jaycee and her daughters are expected to testify a conviction will be a foregone conclusion if the confession is entered into evidence.

Phillip Garrido may attempt to convince a jury that he is not guilty by reason of insanity but he is unlikely to succeed. Among the many witnesses at the trial will be some of his customers at the print shop that he ran in Antioch, California. It is unlikely that anyone who is insane could run a successful print shop. Not only did he run a print shop but he managed to hide Jaycee for 18 years. That takes planning and preparation unlikely to be found in an insane man.

Another trial issue that may come up is Jaycee’s testimony. There is some question of whether she will testify and if she testifies how she will testify. She has been quoted making statements friendly to the Garrido’s and she apparently met with Nancy in the jail in December. There is evidence that she was affected by the Stockholm Syndrome. The Stockholm Syndrome affects kidnapped individual who are totally dependent on their kidnappers. After initial feelings of anger and shock kidnap victims develop feelings of love towards their kidnappers who they are totally depended upon for emotional support, sustenance, and wellbeing. Thus with the Garridos facing outrageous sentences it is possible that Dugard will try to help them by providing favorable testimony. But the evidence of the kidnapping is extensive. Dugard’s step father witnessed it. She could testify that the sex was consensual but it will be hard for a jury to believe that Dugard who was 14 and totally dependent on her kidnappers for support when her oldest daughter was born gave knowing consent to the sex. Furthermore Dugard has given complete statements regarding her life with the Garridos to the police and she could be cross examined with her prior statements if she attempts to exonerate the Garridos.