Hughes

Previously:

• Del Norte Sheriff Identifies Victim in Tuesday's Stabbing

• 42-Year-Old Man Faces Murder, Attempted Murder Charges in Connection With Stabbing

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A 43-year-old Crescent City man faces a life sentence after he pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with a stabbing that took place in December.

Gabriel Joseph Hughes admitted to stabbing 69-year-old Rick Alan Nations, who died from his injuries on Dec. 6. Hughes also pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury in connection with stabbing Nations’ daughter, according to District Attorney Katherine Micks.

Hughes is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11, Micks told the Wild Rivers Outpost.

Deputies arrested Hughes on the 1300 block of Keller Avenue on Dec. 6 after responding to a report of a young woman who said she was stabbed, according to Sheriff Garrett Scott. When they arrived on scene, they found a woman in her 20s with stab wounds to the neck area, the sheriff told the Outpost in December.

Nations was about 50 to 60 feet away from his daughter with multiple stab wounds, according to Scott.

Scott said Hughes was living in a neighbor’s house and had allegedly walked to Nations’ home the afternoon of the attack. Nations saw Hughes coming and stepped out onto the porch to talk with him when the attack occurred, Scott told the Outpost.

After arresting Hughes, deputies recovered a knife at the crime scene, according to Scott.

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