'They will never be able to take her away from me': Father pleads guilty in 6-year-old’s stabbing death
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina man accused of killing his 6-year-old daughter on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2016 while in a custody battle with the girl’s mother has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
Seth Willis Pickering, 37, of Leicester will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the plea agreement entered in federal court Friday morning. Pickering admitted to stabbing his daughter Lila through the heart on Sept. 9, 2016.
Only court officials and members of the media were present during the hearing, in which Pickering, clad in a baggy brown jumpsuit and chains, declined to make a statement. He showed no signs of emotion as U.S. District Judge Max. O. Cogburn Jr. recounted the facts of the case, nor did he when Cogburn announced his sentence. Pickering's defense attorneys, S. Frederick Winiker and Mary Ellen Coleman, declined to comment in the courtroom after the plea deal was accepted.
Winiker mentioned during the hearing that Pickering has been treated for mental illness in the past and is taking Sertraline, a prescription drug used to treat a host of symptoms, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder and panic disorder.
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“Our hearts go out to Lila’s family. No action by the criminal justice system can soothe the pain of their loss,” said U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray in announcing Friday’s guilty plea in a press release. “By allowing the defendant to plead guilty and serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole, we will spare the family the trauma of a lengthy trial and decades of appeals. We hope this resolution brings some comfort to the family of Lila Pickering.”
Pritchard told the court that Lila's mother and Seth's ex-wife, Ashley Pickering, wanted to be present at the hearing but was unable to come because she lives in Florida.
A lengthy custody battle between Seth and Ashley Pickering preceded the murder of their daughter. For more than a year, Ashley had been fighting for custody of Lila, she told the Citizen Times on Sept. 10, 2016, the day after her daughter was fatally stabbed.
About a month earlier, the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services took Lila from her father and placed her under the custody of caretakers who lived near the elementary school where Lila went to school, according to the federal complaint against Pickering. The complaint doesn't say why DHHS took Lila from her father.
On Sept. 9, Seth Pickering picked his daughter up from her caretakers' home and, against their warnings, took her camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Lila's guardians notified the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, which was preparing to issue an Amber Alert at the time of Lila's death.
Just before 7 p.m. two park rangers approached Pickering and his daughter, investigating what they believed to be an illegal campsite. They knew nothing about the Amber Alert, as it was never issued. Things went terribly awry after the rangers greeted Pickering and his daughter.
“Without warning, (one ranger) observed Pickering turn away from the rangers and make a lunging movement toward Lila who was standing a few feet behind him," according to the federal complaint. "(The ranger) heard an audible “thud-like” noise and a brief high-pitched wince or grunt sound coming from Lila, who then fell to the ground.”
She had been stabbed through the heart and died at the scene.
Pickering later told the rangers that he had killed his daughter so that nobody could take her from him again, according to the complaint.
“Now they will never be able to take her away from me,” he said.