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Accused Killer Expected To Plead Guilty In Canon City Murder Of Mother, 2 Children

CANON CITY, Colo. (CBS4)- The man accused of killing a mother and her two young children in Canon City is expected to plead guilty in the case.

Jaacob Vanwinkle is expected to plead guilty to all of the charges against him including murder, kidnapping and sexual assault.

In March, police said Vanwinkle killed the woman and her two children at their home.

Authorities also have accused Vanwinkle of sexually assaulting the woman's teenage daughter. She escaped the home and survived.

Vanwinkle and the mother had dated and he was living with the family, according to authorities.

Vanwinkle is a convicted sex offender.

Vanwinkle was convicted in Indiana of child molestation and other sex crimes involving girls as young as 5 and 7 in 2004. He failed to register as a sex offender after moving to Canon City and authorities were trying to find him before he was arrested in the March 9 killings.

After moving from Indiana to Colorado, he was required to register four times a year. He was supposed to report to the sheriff's office in Fremont County, where Canon City is located, on March 4 but never showed up, Capt. Don Pinover said.

Pinover said the law gives sex offenders a five-day grace period, so a judge would not have signed a warrant until the day after the slayings. Vanwinkle was also wanted in another Colorado county on suspicion of violating a protection order, Pinover said.

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