Georgia man imprisoned for hiding death of Tara Grinstead pleads guilty in unrelated rape cases
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/12/2023 (997 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
PERRY, Ga. (AP) — A man imprisoned for concealing the death of Georgia teacher Tara Grinstead has pleaded guilty to reduced charges in two unrelated rape cases in a deal that lets him avoid additional prison time.
Houston County Superior Court records show that Bo Dukes agreed to plea deals Nov. 13 to settle charges that he had raped women in 2017 and 2019 after threatening them with weapons. Prosecutors agreed to let Dukes plead guilty to aggravated assault with intent to rape in both cases. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, while more than a dozen other counts were dismissed.
The sentences Dukes, 39, received won’t add to the 25-year prison term he is currently serving for his role in Grinstead’s death and disappearance, The plea deal was first reported by WALB-TV.
A high school teacher and former beauty queen, Grinstead vanished in 2005 from her home in rural Irwin County. Her fate remained a mystery for more than a decade until Dukes’ friend with a similar last name, Ryan Duke, told Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents that he strangled Grinstead and enlisted Dukes to help burn her body.
A jury convicted Dukes of concealing Grinstead’s death in 2019. After recanting his confession, Duke was convicted of the same charge in 2022, but acquitted of murder. Additional charges related to Grinstead’s death are still pending in a neighboring county where the men burned her body in a pecan orchard.
Dukes was also indicted in 2019 in two rape cases with no connection to Grinstead’s death and disappearance.
He was charged with raping a woman while threatening her with a knife on Jan. 19, 2017, just a few weeks before his arrest in the Grinstead case. Dukes was indicted for a second rape after two women accused him of sexually assaulting them at gunpoint on Jan. 1, 2019. Dukes was free on bond at the time, awaiting trial for hiding Grinstead’s death.
A judge last month sentenced Dukes to 10 years in prison for each reduced rape count, plus five years for illegally possessing a gun. According to court records, the plea deal allows the time Dukes serves for Grinstead’s death to also count toward those new sentences.