Plea deal spares killer boyfriend's life

Wednesday, June 14, 2006; Posted: 5:03 p.m. EDT (21:03 GMT)

David Ludwig pleaded guilty to the murders of Michael and Cathryn Borden, his girlfriend's parents.

LANCASTER, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A young man accused of killing his 14-year-old girlfriend's parents and running off with her pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder in a deal that spared him from the death penalty.

David G. Ludwig, 19, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for shooting Michael and Cathryn Borden inside their Lititz, Pennsylvania, home in November after they demanded he break off his relationship with their daughter, Kara.

Ludwig and Kara had tried to keep their relationship secret from her parents, who were displeased with their age difference. Investigators said the Bordens confronted Ludwig after discovering he and Kara had been out all night.

After the talk, Ludwig used his father's pistol to shoot the Bordens in the head, and Kara then climbed into his car and they set out to start a new life together, authorities said.

Investigators concluded that Kara joined Ludwig voluntarily but played no role in the shootings. She was not charged with a crime.

Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty against Ludwig.

Ludwig had little to say in court as he pleaded guilty to charges that also included statutory sexual assault.

"By your useless and selfish acts, you destroyed and permanently altered the lives of countless people," Judge David Ashworth said.

The plea bargain bars Ludwig from speaking publicly about the case or profiting from it. District Attorney Don Totaro said the Borden family also asked that Ludwig not be allowed to make a statement in court, not even to apologize.

"They thought it was a bit late for any sort of apology," he said.

Kara was not in the courtroom. Her lawyer, Robert Beyer, said: "I think she's happy to get this behind her and recapture her teenage years."

The couple were caught a day after the killings, following an automobile chase that ended with Ludwig crashing his parents' car into a tree in Indiana. Neither was hurt.

As for why Kara got into Ludwig's car after he had killed her parents, Beyer said: "Kids make rash decisions under stress that are basically not understandable."

Another WTF? Where were this guy's parents? They didn't notice a gun missing for crying out loud? And things are so deep that the girls parents say you can't see her anymore and his solution is to kill them? Then the little tramp walks over the dead bodies and hops into a car with a deranged killer and takes off?

Another thing about his worthless parents, it didn't bother them that their kid's "girlfriend" was 14!! Did either sets of parents talk to each other to work it out. If I had to bet I would say the boys parents are divorced and he lives with the mom.

I wonder who has custody of the girl now? I'd be scared of having her in my house. She's already had one murdering boyfriend. I what the next guy's rap sheet will be like. I wouldn't date her. Her best bet is to change her name and make up a fake past.