Mother, daughter plead guilty to killing woman for coin collection
A mother and daughter pleaded guilty earlier this week to beating and stabbing to death a 73-year-old woman for her coin collection.
Amber Hall, 27, and her mother, Lourie Rodriguez, 46, were indicted in June for the April killing of Jean Greenburg, who was repeatedly hit with a piece of wood and stabbed with a knife.
On Wednesday, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of an elderly person and robbery. Hall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of an elderly person and robbery.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to a stipulated sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years for Rodriguez on the murder count.
A district judge will decide the prison terms on the other charges for both defendants at a sentencing hearing April 1.
Hall, who is mentally retarded, pleaded to the lesser count because Rodriguez said she was the one who hit and stabbed Greenburg, said Hall's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee.
Greenburg, who lived alone in an apartment on Cambridge Street, near Swenson Street and Twain Avenue, was an avid coin collector and had no known family.
After the killing, Rodriguez and Hall sold the stolen coins to a pawnshop for about $2,500.
Police learned of the slaying after friends of Greenburg went to her home and found her dead.
Hall's 3-month-old son was with them at the time of the murder. The piece of wood used to beat Greenburg came from the baby's stroller.
Both Rodriguez and her daughter confessed their roles to police.
Contact reporter Francis McCabe at
fmccabe@reviewjournal.com
or 702-380-1039.
