Southern Utah man pleads guilty to kidnapping housemate's ex, leaving him to die in the Arizona desert

A southern Utah man pleaded guilty in Utah’s U.S. District Court on Wednesday to kidnapping a Santa Clara man and leaving him in the Arizona desert to die.

Francis Lee McCard, 56, of Washington city, agreed to a sentence of 29 years in prison for the federal offense of kidnapping resulting in the death of 30-year-old David Corey Heisler on June 27, 2016, court documents show.

Additionally, McCard agreed to plead guilty in an Arizona case to second-degree murder, a class 1 felony which will carry a penalty of 25 years in prison, and kidnapping, as a dangerous class 2 felony which carries a sentence of 21 years. Aggravating factors in the case include the presence of an accomplice, a cruel manner in which the offense was committed and causing emotional harm to the Heisler’s immediate family, documents said.

Each sentence is set to run consecutively, totaling 75 years in prison. McCard’s sentencing date has not yet been set.

At the time of the kidnapping, McCard lived with Kelley Marie Perry, now 33, who had a child with Heisler, and Tammy Renee Freeman, now 55. Police have said McCard and Perry were “romantically involved.”

Two weeks before the kidnapping, Heisler had been awarded sole custody of his and Perry’s 6-year-old daughter after a lengthy custody case, court documents say. The judge ordered that Perry’s parenting time continue to be supervised.

After the judge announced his decision, witnesses heard McCard tell Perry, “I will fix this,” court documents note.

Charging documents say that on the night of the kidnapping, Freeman drove Perry and McCard to Heisler’s home. Perry knocked on Heisler’s door, knowing he was home alone, documents say, and McCard assaulted Heisler when he answered.

The pair then forced Heisler into his own vehicle and drove toward the Utah-Arizona border, documents say. McCard dropped Perry off on the side of the road near the border and continued driving with Heisler.

Freeman picked Perry up, documents say, and they went to Mesquite, Nev., to gamble for about an hour before McCard called, asking them to pick him up in Beaver Dam, Ariz.

McCard told Perry and Freeman that he’d left Heisler alive “out in the desert approximately 40 miles from St. George” according to documents.

McCard altered his appearance by shaving his head in a bathroom, charges state and video surveillance shows Freeman dusting off his shoulder “immediately after the incident.”

Heisler’s father reported him missing June 27, 2016, after noticing blood on the floor of his home and items missing.

A Bureau of Land Management geologist came across Heisler’s remains in Arizona’s Mount Trumbull Wilderness nearly two months later, on Aug. 18, 2016, decomposed beyond recognition. Medical examiners have said they were unable to determine a cause of death.

Meanwhile, Heisler’s vehicle had been found July 1, 2016, abandoned in Beaver Dam, Ariz., an unincorporated community in Mohave County in the northwestern corner of the state. McCard admitted taking the car to Arizona and leaving it there, documents say.

“There was blood on the exterior of the vehicle and a bullet casing inside the vehicle,” documents say.

From McCard’s home, police seized two types of rope, a pair of insulated gloves, two handguns, ammunition and other items, a court document states.

Perry was charged July 7, 2016 in Utah’s 5th District Court with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony; and theft, a second-degree felony. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 9 in her case.

Freeman faces the same charges, filed in Utah court July 11, 2016. She has a status hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

As part of his plea agreement, McCard agreed to testify in the cases against Perry and Freeman.

McCard, Perry and Freeman are being held at the Washington County jail.