A plea agreement has been executed between the Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office and Attorney June Bules who is representing Maeson Coffin, the co-defendant in the Richard “Paul” Costello murder case. Coffin will submit an official guilty plea to the charges of burglary, theft and auto theft in January, with the charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder dismissed.

In a statement released to the media, Marshall County Prosecuting Attorney Nelson Chipman explained that filing a plea agreement is different than submitting a plea. He said typically, the terms of plea agreements are not made public until presented in open court at the time the defendant pleads guilty.

However, due to the “understandable intense public interest in this horrific crime,” Chipman chose to make an exception to the rule of non-disclosure of the terms after thoroughly consulting with the victim’s family about major case developments. Continue reading →