Second guilty plea in death of Missouri transgender teen

CABOOL (AP) - One of four people charged in connection with the slaying of a Missouri transgender teenager has pleaded guilty.

Ozarksfirst.com reported 25-year-old James Thomas Grigsby, of Thayer, pleaded guilty Tuesday to abandonment of a corpse. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Grigsby was accused of helping three other people dispose of the body of 17-year-old Ally Steinfeld, of rural Texas County, in September 2017. She was killed in Cabool, about 70 miles east of Springfield.

Investigators said her eyes were gouged out and she was stabbed several times, including in the genitals, but authorities have insisted the killing was not a hate crime.

One woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two others are awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges.