Judge: Guilty pleas stand in sons’ deaths

? A judge has denied a Liberal man’s request to withdraw his guilty pleas in the deaths of his two sons, who were killed when the camper they were sleeping in caught fire.

Robert Fox will now be sentenced on two counts of reckless second-degree murder in the deaths of Chance and Rowdy Fox, 6 and 4, on March 27, 2004, Seward County District Judge Tom Smith said in a decision distributed Monday. A date for the sentencing was not set.

In his ruling, Smith said he doubted Fox’s claims that he was sleep deprived and felt pressured when he made the plea deal. Smith noted that Fox and his lawyers had been talking about a plea agreement at least since February.

The boys were visiting Fox from Hooker, Okla., where they lived with their mother, when their father’s camper caught fire. The elder Fox escaped with burns.

Before pleading guilty to two counts of reckless second-degree murder, Fox had faced charges of capital murder, which is punishable by death, and first-degree murder.