FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) \u2014\u00a0Lisa Hinthorne agreed to become a convicted killer as she pleaded no contest to the 2023 death of her half-sister, Patty Kennett, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
It came just hours before prosecutors were set to reveal new evidence during a preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe maximum punishment for the crimes that you\u2019re pleading to is 40 years to life,\u201d Fresno County Superior Court Judge Raj Singh Badhesha told Hinthorne.<\/p>\n
Authorities say Hinthorne claimed her sister had died, but there were no hospital or ambulance records.<\/p>\n
Investigators later found Kennett\u2019s bloodied car in Madera, and her body in a remote area of Coalinga.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatty was her ride (or) die,\u201d Terrie Fairley told Action News on November 29, 2023. \u201cPatty was everything to her, so I don\u2019t understand what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fairley, Hinthorne\u2019s ex-wife, said her spouse of 32 years was loving and caring, but said Hinthorne abruptly moved out and asked for a divorce months before the murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did what she did, and it was a horrible way for Patty to die,\u201d Fairley said at the time. \u201cShe didn\u2019t deserve that, and I hope justice gets served.\u201d<\/p>\n
For two years, there has been no motive, and the public has known little about the investigation.<\/p>\n
Police only said that investigators obtained surveillance video showing Kennett falling to the ground and then Hinthorne moving the body with an accomplice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any question the video would have played. There\u2019s no question in my mind,\u201d Action News Legal Analyst Tony Capozzi said. \u201cThe video wouldn\u2019t have shown the actual murder, but it sure is strong circumstantial evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such evidence is now sealed. Hinthorne\u2019s change of plea avoids a jury trial and shaves 10 years off her sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas there an advantage to pleading to the second degree? Maybe it was to keep the family from going through the travails of a trial, the heartbreak or the emotions,\u201d Capozzi said.<\/p>\n
Hinthorne also gave up her right to appeal. A judge will sentence her to 40 years to life in prison on January 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) \u2014\u00a0Lisa Hinthorne agreed to become a convicted killer as she pleaded no contest to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-83183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}