Philip Mathew O’Reilly, left, and his girlfriend, Cheryl Beardall, right. (Mugshot of O’Reilly from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via Las Vegas Review-Journal; Beardall photo from Henderson Police Department)
A man accused of using a dog leash and his hands to kill his long-missing girlfriend and mother of three children and then trying to hire a hitman to kill witnesses, including two of her children, has told authorities the location of her body in a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, his public defender said.
Philip Mathew O’Reilly told authorities the location of the body of Cheryl Beardall, 34, his public defender David Westbrook told reporters after the hearing on Wednesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
“In order to fulfill the terms of that negotiation, he had to disclose the location of the body,” the paper reported Westbrook said after Wednesday’s hearing. The specific location was not released by the attorney but he said it was given to police and her family, the newspaper reported.
During Wednesday’s court hearing, District Judge Michelle Leavitt reportedly asked O’Reilly if he admitted to killing Beardall and if it was “willful, deliberate and premeditated, and/or perpetrated by means of torture.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said after a pause, according to the newspaper.
O’Reilly is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole at his next in June, the newspaper reported.
O’Reilly was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Sept. 2, 2021, authorities said. He was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon and two counts of child abuse/neglect or endangerment, police said in a news release.
Family members last saw Beardall in July 2020, authorities said. Her vehicle was found in late September, but she was nowhere to be found, officials said.
An indictment accused O’Reilly of using a dog leash and his hands to kill her while the children were home between June 20, 2020, and July 23, 2020, reported CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS 8 News Now.
The station reported that Beardall’s 11-year-old son was asked to bring the leash and later ice packs for his mother after the beating, while the victim’s 14-year-old daughter was forced to babysit the children in a nearby room.
After the murder, O’Reilly rented a U-Haul truck and packed up his belongings and the kids to move to North Las Vegas, the Review-Journal reported, citing testimony from an officer at a hearing in September 2021. While driving, he stopped at an apartment complex and told the kids to remain in the vehicle.
“He got out and pulled the mattress and the box spring out of the U-Haul and discarded it in a dumpster enclosure at the apartment complex,” Henderson police officer Nathan Calvano reportedly testified.
O’Reilly is also currently accused of offering a hitman $20,000 to kill four witnesses, including Beardall’s children, and drawing a map to the home of the targets, according to KLAS, citing the arrest report. Court records show O’Reilly is currently facing four counts of solicitation to commit murder.
O’Reilly later denied to detectives that he was making any threats, the station reported. That case is still pending.
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