James Phelps Enters Alford Plea, Sentenced to Life Without Parole in Cassidy Rainwater Murder

One of two suspects accused in the 2021 murder of 33-year-old Cassidy Rainwater in Dallas County has been sentenced to life in prison without the chance for parole after entering an alford plea on Friday.

The alford plea means that James Phelps admits there was enough evidence to be found guilty without admitting any guilt to the crime.

Phelps and co-defendant Timothy Norton…who’s also charged in the case with first-degree murder as well as kidnapping and abandonment of a corpse…had been accused of Rainwater’s disappearance, holding her in a cage, dismembering her body and putting her remains in a freezer at Phelps’s home in Lebanon.

That property later burned in what was described as an act of arson.

Norton is scheduled to be in court on his charges tomorrow.