ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Today, Seth Willis Pickering, 38, of
Leicester, N.C. was ordered to serve life in prison for killing his daughter,
Lila Pickering, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District
of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. presided over the
sentencing hearing.
On February 9, 2018, Pickering pleaded guilty to
first-degree murder, and admitted to killing his daughter on September 9, 2016,
within the boundaries of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Pickering further admitted
that he killed Lila Pickering, who had not attained the age of 18 years and was
under his care and control, willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with
premeditation.
Pickering will be transferred to the custody of the federal
Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences
are served without the possibility of parole.
In handing down today’s sentence, Judge Cogburn said that
"there was no excuse for what happened," and stated that Pickering
"killed a child to punish social services and his wife."
U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the FBI, the National Park
Service and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office for their investigation of the
case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Thorneloe and John Pritchard
of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.
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