Strip club killer's mother, sister enter guilty pleas

The mother and sister of death row inmate Richard Lee Tabler, the Killeen, Texas, strip club killer, pleaded gulity this week in a Texas court to sneaking in contraband to Tabler,

The contraband in question was buying minutes for a smuggled cell phone that Tabler used to make a threatening call to a state senator:

Gina DeBottis, director of the Huntsville-based Special Prosecutions Unit that handles prison crimes, said Lorraine Tabler, 61, and Kristina Martinez, 36, pleaded guilty in a Polk County state court and received a sentence of 10 years deferred adjudication.

Under that sentence, both women will remain on probation for 10 years and will have their record cleared ofd the charges if they do not commit new crimes in the meantime, officials said.

Tabler and Timothy Doan Payne, an East Newton High School graduate, were convicted of killing two people connected to the Teazers strip club in Killeen. Payne is serving a life sentence.