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Another guilty plea in businessman's slaying

Robert Eatman, one of seven people charged in the Jan. 9 home-invasion slaying of Korean businessman Robert Chae, has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.

Robert Eatman, one of seven people charged in the Jan. 9 home-invasion slaying of Korean businessman Robert Chae, has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.

Eatman, 34, is the third person to plead guilty in Chae's death and was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 40 years in prison on the murder count in Montgomery County Court. He faces the possibility of additional time for his guilty pleas to robbery and conspiracy charges in the case, but sentencing on those counts has not been scheduled.

In September, Chae's nephew Angelo Shin and getaway driver Sybil White pleaded guilty to Chae's murder. Chae was suffocated with duct tape in the daytime robbery of his Montgomery Township home, prosecutors said.

Assistant District Attorney Todd Stephens said Eatman had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Three of the four remaining defendants - Karre Pitts, Amatadi Latham, and Joseph Page - are scheduled for trial Jan. 8. A fourth defendant, Julius Wise, is scheduled to appear in court today. - Derrick Nunnally