Plea Made In Hebron Man's Kidnapping, Death

Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 7:29 AM

Louis Wilkinson

Boone Co. Sheriff's Office

(Hebron, Ky.) - A man who helped his mother kidnap and extort an elderly Hebron man before burning his body has pleaded guilty.

Louis Wilkinson, 30, appeared in Boone Circuit Court on Tuesday to plead to charges of kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and exploitation of an adult. Prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge in exchange for the plea, the Kentucky Enquirer reports.

In February 2009, Wilkinson and his mother, Willa Blanc, kidnapped 73-year-old millionaire Walter Sartory from his Hebron home.

Investigators say Sartory died as he was drugged and held in the basement of Blanc’s home in Union. Blanc, 50, forged documents to gain access to Sartory’s life savings.

After Sartory’s death, Wilkinson allegedly helped his mother burn Sartory’s body and dump the remains in a central Indiana field.

Sartory was a a retired scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee who suffered from social phobia and schizophrenia.

With the remaining charges, Wilkinson faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in May. The minimum sentence for a capital kidnapping case as required by state law is 20 years.

Blanc was sentenced to life in prison without parole in January after she pleaded guilty in the case.

LINKS:

Life In Prison For Hebron Man's Kidnapper

Woman Pleads To Fatal Kidnapping; Gets Life

Trial Date Set In Hebron Man's Murder