GUILTY NE - Austin Wright, 18, freezing death ruled homicide, Hitchcock County, 7 March 2014

The Nebraska Attorney General's spokeswoman Liz Eberle said Wednesday that John Leahy III had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Austin Wright.

Wright's body was found in southwest Nebraska's Hitchcock County April 12 -- several weeks after his mother reported him missing from McCook.

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Police talked with 22-year-old J.R. Leahy III, who Austin was staying with. Leahy described a bizarre sequence of events the night of March 7th. He said Wright was acting strange, possibly on drugs, talking like he was J.R. Wright picked up an urn full of Leahy's mom's ashes, spilling some. Leahy then said he got angry and beat up Wright. Leahy then called up his friend Nathan Deloach to help drive Wright out of town.

At first the two told police they dropped off Wright in McCook, but on April 11th, Leahy changed his story saying they left Wright on some back country road four miles outside of Palisade. The next day deputies searched the area and found Wright's body stripped of clothes laying under a metal covering of an oil well not far from where Leahy says he dropped Wright off...

The autopsy originally listed the cause of death as 'undetermined' but later ruled it death due to exposure to cold weather. NTV checked out the weather that weekend and the temperature in the area dropped as low as 22 degrees. According to the Mayo Clinic, a side affect of severe hypothermia is confusion and poor decision–making, such as trying to remove warm clothes.

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A murder charge filed against a Trenton man recently indicates the crime may have occurred during a kidnapping.

22-year-old John Leahy III has been charged with a Class IA felony alleging murder in the first degree and is facing life imprisonment.

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JR Leahy III accepted a plea deal in Colorado on Monday, January 5th for meth possession, sending him to prison for three years in Colorado's Department of Corrections. Back in September, Leahy was arrested for having more than 4 ounces of methamphetamine in his vehicle.

Leahy is also waiting to be sent to Hitchcock County, where he faces charges of first-degree murder in the April 2014 death of 18-year-old Austin Wright.

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The Nebraska attorney general's office says 25-year-old John R. Leahy was sentenced Monday in Hitchcock County District Court to 24 to 30 years for kidnapping, 18 to 20 years for manslaughter and 8 to 10 years of possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine.

Leahy was earlier found guilty of charges related to the death of 22-year-old Austin Wright, who was reported missing March 9, 2014.

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