Man who took Alford plea in 2017 homicide case gets sentenced to probation

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Callaway County man who took an Alford plea in May in a 2017 Cole County homicide case was sentenced to probation on Monday.

Zacchaeus Silva, of Williamsburg, pleaded guilty in May to accessory to second-degree assault in the beating death of Jerry Robertson on April 20, 2017. He had been indicted with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, armed criminal action, evidence tampering and witness tampering charges.

An Alford plea is one in which a defendant does not explicitly admit guilt, but acknowledges the state has the evidence to obtain a conviction.

Silva was sentenced to five years of supervised probation with a seven-year suspended sentence.

A co-defendant, Robert Thrasher, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2022, previous reporting shows.