Ray Vance and Kathleen Mathews

The parents of a man accused of killing a local police sergeant pleaded guilty this morning to four of the federal charges against them.

Kathleen and Ray Vance Mathews pleaded guilty to charges that they helped their son hide from police and knowingly gave him firearms after he fled a halfway house in Colorado in February.

The couple are scheduled for sentencing in U.S. District Judge Harry "Sandy" Mattice's courtroom on Dec. 19. The most severe charge carries a 20-year maximum sentence.

Their son, Jesse Mathews, faces the death penalty in state court for the killing of Chattanooga police Sgt. Tim Chapin during an April 2 botched robbery of the U.S. Money Shops on Brainerd Road.

For more see tomorrow's Times Free Press.