Crack dealer admits aiding in double slay
A crack dealer who hid evidence connected to a gruesome Peabody double-murder will serve at least six years behind bars for what a prosecutor called an “egregious” form of accessory after the fact.
Michael C. Hebb,
46, of Peabody, pleaded guilty yesterday in Essex Superior Court to being an accessory after the fact to murder and attempted arson in connection with the horrific slayings of Jennifer O’Connor, 40, and her boyfriend, Mark Greenlaw, 37, whose bodies were discovered in their Peabody home Feb. 18.
Authorities say O’Connor was also raped before she was stabbed to death by Wes Doughty, who fatally shot Greenlaw with a shotgun, authorities said.
Prosecutor Kate MacDougall told Judge Timothy Feeley that Hebb walked in on the sexual assault and helped clean up the crime scene by wrapping O’Connor’s body in plastic and disposing of her as “one would dispose of garbage.”
Although Hebb’s defense attorney, Ray Buso, acknowledged his client “accepts responsibility that he could have made different choices,” he insisted Hebb was acting under “duress” because he feared Doughty would kill his uncle.
Hebb was sentenced yesterday to six to seven years in prison for the accessory charge and five years probation on the arson charge.
After Hebb was sentenced, Margo Duarte, Greenlaw’s mother, said she still struggles with the thought of her son’s gruesome end. “I just hope everything that he gets coming to him, he gets,” she said.
Doughty is facing two counts of murder. Prosecutors left open the possibility Hebb could still be charged with Greenlaw’s murder.