SOUTH BEND – One of two Raymond-area residents charged with the murder of three people has pleaded guilty in a plea-bargain deal.

David Knotek, 50, originally charged with first-degree murder, pleaded guilty in Pacific County Superior Court Jan. 30 to second-degree murder in the death of Shane Watson and to misdemeanor charges of first-degree rendering criminal assistance and unlawfully disposing of human remains.

“Part of the deal is that Mr. Knotek will tell us what he knows about what went on at the murder scene,” Pacific County Prosecutor David Burke said last week.

Knotek’s wife, Michelle Knotek, 50, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder or two counts of first-degree manslaughter.

In a case that drew massive media coverage, the couple is suspected of causing the deaths of three people at their Raymond-area home

The couple were arrested Aug. 8 at their Monohon Landing Road residence and jailed after a number of local witnesses began coming to sheriff’s deputies with information about the physical and mental abuse of two men and a woman who had lived with the Knoteks.

The witnesses told deputies of physical and emotional abuse of at least three people at the hands of the Knoteks that allegedly resulted in the death of a 57-year-old man, Ronald Woodworth, and a woman, Kathy Loreno, who had been reported missing by her mother in 1994. The witnesses also provided information about Watson, who had been missing since around the time of the Loreno’s death.

“We talked to a lot of people (about the plea bargain),” Burke said. “If I had to do it again, I’d do it again. We could have prosecuted Mr. Knotek and probably would have got a conviction, but there are still a lot of questions unanswered. He knows more about the bodies and the people who died. By interviewing him and asking a wide range of questions we’ll get more information. We’ll be heading for community healing and will add one more piece to the puzzle for everybody to understand what’s happened. We need to put the rumors to bed.”

Part of the bargain, Burke said, is that David Knotek will be offered immunity from prosecution for anything he reveals about the case, as long as long as it occurred in Pacific County. But, he said, if Mr. Knotek reveals information about foul play outside the county, he won’t be immune from prosecution. “We don’t have a reason to think that will happen,” Burke said.

Whatever David Knotek tells the prosecution in the case won’t be revealed until Michelle Knotek’s trial, scheduled for May 3. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” Burke said.

The top range of sentencing for second-degree murder is 164 months, for rendering criminal assistance is 12 months and disposing of human remains is three months. The sentences would run concurrently, and David Knotek would serve one month short of 15 years, Burke said. “But the judge could give him up to a life sentence,” he said. If the charge had remained as first-degree murder, “Mr. Knotek would have been looking at the better part of 20 to 26 years,” he said.

A sentencing date hasn’t been set for David Knotek.

What the two trials will cost the county is anybody’s guess but, Burke said, “even if we didn’t still have financial problems in the county, our revenue base has dropped and we’re spending more than we’re taking in. We’re spending our bank account. When it gets to zero, we have to balance it. It will get worse. If revenues are flat and costs go up every year, the long-term impact concerns me.”