Great Falls man sentenced to 60 years for motel murder

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A Cascade County judge has sentenced a Great Falls man to 60 years in prison for a 2017 murder of a woman at the Airway Motel.

Judge John Kutzman also ordered Stanley Isaac Lebeau to pay more than $14,000 in restitution, the Great Falls Tribune reported.

Lebeau, while using methamphetamine, killed Tasha Rush and left her body in the bathtub. When police detained him on an unrelated matter, he spontaneously told them about the murder.

Lebeau was partway through his trial when he agreed to sign a plea agreement.

Kutzman accepted the plea and sentenced Lebeau to 60 years in prison with no parole for 20 years. Lebeau is 54 years old and has already spent more than four years in jail awaiting trial. He'll be around 70 years old when he becomes eligible for parole.