Update On Perkins Triple Murder Plea

Perkins in an earlier court hearing... By Barry West

Matthew Perkins of Tullahoma plead guilty of killing a mother and her two children on Monday in Coffee County court. Yesterday (July 30, 2012) Perkins plead guilty of the murders of 26-year-old Stephanie Hershman, and her sons, three-year-old Jathan and one-year-old Jaylon.
According to assistant district attorney Ken Shelton, the autopsies showed the victims died of multiple blunt force trauma and knife wounds. In September 2010 the victims’ bodies were found in a bedroom closet of their Skinner Flatt Road home in Manchester.
Nearly 30 family members were in court Monday and had to approve the deal before he could accept it. Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty, but the district attorney general’s office said in a statement that they accepted the plea agreement based on uncertainties about whether a jury would unanimously impose the death penalty.
Perkins entered a plea of guilty on three counts of murder. He is sentenced to three counts of life without parole. He will serve the rest of his life in Tennessee state prison. Matthew Perkins plead guilty on his 32nd birthday.