Man pleads guilty to child rape after wife charged in murder plot

Published 10:40 pm Thursday, January 7, 2010

EVERETT — A man who authorities believe was the intended target of a murder plot is headed to prison for sexually assaulting a relative.

Todd Beavin, 40, was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in prison for third-degree rape of a child. In a hearing early last month, Beavin didn’t admit any wrongdoing, but he acknowledged that a jury likely would convict him of sexual assault.

His wife Terry Beavin remains behind bars, charged with attempted first-degree domestic violence murder. She is accused of plotting to kill Todd Beavin.

Investigators believe that she attempted to recruit the couple’s teenage son to help murder her husband. She allegedly told authorities she was going to drug her husband, wait for him to pass out and then stab him to death. Detectives said Terry Beavin told them that her husband abused her for years. She also wanted him to pay for molesting a family member, according to court papers.

Terry Beavin told investigators in 2008 that the family member had disclosed the abuse in 2007. Her husband moved out of the house for a time but returned.

A girl told investigators that Todd Beavin, of Moses Lake, assaulted her when she was about 8 years old. She said the most recent incident happened November 2008.

Investigators said that Beavin interfered with a state investigation into the allegations. He and his wife moved the girl out of the area in June. The girl declined to assist with prosecution but later changed her mind and cooperated with investigators, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tammy Bayard wrote.

A Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer uncovered the murder plot after he noticed that a Mariner High School student was acting strangely. The boy told the deputy his mother was planning to kill his father. She asked him to help her buy a knife and pills.

Police arrested Terry Beavin in September when she came to the school to pick up her son.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.