Life sentence handed down for Cassidy Rainwater death

A life sentence has been handed down for the gruesome death of Cassidy Rainwater. 

One of the two men charged in the death of Cassidy Rainwater entered an Alford plea for first-degree murder and faces a sentence of life behind bars without parole. 

60-year-old James Phelps was charged with kidnapping, murdering, and abandoning the corpse of the 33-year-old woman in summer of 2021. 

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, at the time, said she was strangled before being gutted and dismembered. 

Her remains were found on Phelps’ property located in a freezer while skeletal remains were found on a nearby property. 

An Alford plea is an admission that the state has enough evidence for a conviction. 

Co-defendant Timothy Norton’s next court date is on May 2.