Jackson, MS-Attorney General Jim Hood today announced a guilty plea in a capital murder case against George G. Bell, III (age 33), of Jackson, MS.  Bell entered his plea of guilty to capital murder involving the death and rape of his girlfriend Heather Spencer.  He also pled guilty to having kidnaped her roommate, Elizabeth Hall, forcing her to go with him to his mother?s home where Miss Spencer lay dead.  Judge Winston Kidd, in Hinds County Circuit Court, sentenced Bell to life without parole on the capital murder charge and 30 years (the maximum sentence, to run concurrent with the life sentence) on the kidnaping charge. 

Attorney General Hood became involved at the request of Hall?s mother.  ?The victims impact statement made by Heather?s mother and grandmother in open court provided some degree of instant justice,? said Attorney General Hood.  ?I don?t understand why the good Lord allows senseless crimes like this to occur, but I think the message to be gleaned from this tragedy is, for women involved in a violent relationship, that the violence will not stop until they remove themselves from the relationship.  If he hits you once, he?ll hit you again.  Bell beat Heather in the head with a hammer in June, requiring some 68 staples.  He went into rehab and,  within 48 hours of getting out, he had raped her, beat her with a flashlight and strangled her until she no longer breathed.  Heather gave her life trying to change the unchangeable.? 

Bell will serve his sentence in the custody of the Department of Corrections.  He faced the death penalty on the murder charge and 30 years each on one count of kidnaping.