California man gets prison for dismembering Pennsylvania man

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A California man has pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering a man in northeastern Pennsylvania and was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.

Thirty-six-year-old James Britton Jr. entered the plea Oct. 13 in the July 2002 killing of Robert Roudebush, whose charred remains were found in two barrels in Monroe County.

The sentence was immediately imposed on Britton, of Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Police say he and his ex-wife Stacy Britton, also of Twentynine Palms, stabbed and beat Roudebush to death inside a home in Wilkes-Barre in 2002. They say the pair dismembered and burned the body in Monroe County where the remains were discovered a year later.

Prosecutors alleged the couple thought he had stolen drugs and money from them.

They moved to California in the months after Roudebush’s killing.

Stacy Britton is still awaiting trial.