Minnesota Twins former minor leaguer pleads guilty to manslaughter
Former Minnesota Twins minor league John Tercheria has plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter after killing his wife with a hammer.
It was a case that surprised all of Blackhawk, California. The small town of under 10,000 people was shaken to the core when former Minnesota Twins minor league John Tercheria was charged with murder and torture, after his estranged wife was killed by over 20 blows to the head with a hammer. Tercheria had been a successful business owner, a well liked family man who had become a renowned softball player. However, due to the charges against him, he faced the death penalty, a real possibility given the horrific nature of the crime.
On Thursday, a month before he was set to go to trial, Tercheria suddenly decided to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The 71 year old now faces a sentence of 17 years and four months, with a chance to have 20% of his sentence taken off for good behavior. Still, given his advanced age, there is a distinct possibility that this sentence will ensure that Tercheria will die in prison.
The motive for such a horrific crime is that he had an affair with a female that he met several years ago at Target. Just days before the murder, she had told him that if he did not leave with her, the relationship was over. Tercheria responded brutally, in the hopes that he would be able to begin a new life elsewhere.
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Naturally, Tercheria’s attorneys paint a different picture. They claim that his lover was really extorting money from the former ballplayer, and that Tercheria had been showing the beginning stages of dementia. That pairing, along with the steroids he had taken at an anti-aging facility, had led to that horrific act.
Regardless of the reasons, Tercheria’s time on the diamond is over. He had pitched for five games in the Twins system, posting a 10.80 ERA and a 2.500 WHiP in his ten innings, issuing 15 walks as he did not have any command. However, he became a star softball player, and was eventually inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame in 2007.
This crime was certainly horrific in nature. Linda Tercheria’s friends and family have had their lives drastically altered, as they will no longer be able to speak to someone they called a mother and a friend. Even worse, this horrible act was committed by her husband, shattering the illusion of the wonderful life that they had shared together.
Former Minnesota Twins farmhand John Tercheria will spend the next 17 years of his life in prison for killing his wife. This sentence may well prove to led to Tercheria being incarcerated for the rest of his life.