Judge discounts death penalty in child's murder

(Stilwell-AP) -- An Adair County judge is rejecting the death sentence for a man who admitted killing an eight-year-old girl by beating her head with a rock.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Michael Paul Drasher. Drasher made a surprise guilty plea to a first-degree murder charge Wednesday in the July 1998 murder of Jessica Dee Ann Price.

District Judge John Garrett says he's happy with his decision to make a plea agreement with Drasher and give him a sentence of life in prison without parole. But prosecutor Darrell Dowty says he'll still present evidence to the judge supporting the death penalty.

Jessica disappeared after telling her family she was going to visit Drasher's stepchildren not far from her own home. Her body was found in the eastern Adair County woods several days later.