The Lilburn man accused of killing and dismembering an Agnes Scott College and Mercer University law school graduate nearly three years ago was sentenced to life in prison Monday morning after pleading guilty to malice murder.
Stephen Mark McDaniel admitted the crime in a statement filed in court, The Macon Telegraph reported. The statement said that late on June 25 or early on June 26, 2011, he broke into Lauren Giddings’ Macon apartment and fatally choked her as she slept.
Giddings, who had just graduated from Mercer University’s law school, was last seen after a night out with friends. Her torso was discovered several days later in a trash can outside the apartments where she and McDaniel were neighbors.
Investigators built a case against McDaniel with evidence that included a bloodied hacksaw, Giddings’ panties and an Internet post that brags of sex and dismemberment. Her head, arms and legs have never been found.
McDaniel said in the statement that he put her other remains in a dumpster at Mercer University’s law school.
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for McDaniel, but in February removed capital punishment from the case.
Judge Howard Simms had agreed last month to move McDaniel’s trial 60 miles north to Henry County because of pretrial publicity.
Before starting law school, Giddings, a Maryland native, had worked just over a year as a project assistant in the discovery center for the Atlanta office of the King and Spalding law firm.
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