Rice due in court Wednesday

PENSACOLA — An Escambia County grand jury has cleared the way for the State Attorney’s Office to prosecute Mary Barbara Craig Rice for first-degree murder.

Jurors have handed down an indictment, according to State Attorney Bill Eddins.

Rice, who is alleged to have participated alongside William “Billy” Boyette Jr. in an eight-day crime spree that left four women dead, will face the capital murder charge for her role in the death of 28-year-old Kayla Crocker.

Crocker was fatally shot Feb. 6 at her home in the Beulah community near Pensacola during a home invasion robbery. “Kayla Crocker was found by her mother … with a gunshot wound to her head,” according to a news release from the State Attorney’s Office.

The grand jury also indicted Rice, 37, on two counts of accessory after the fact to murder for her role in the Jan. 31 killings of Alicia Greer and Jacqueline Moore in Santa Rosa County.

Eddins said investigation of the multiple crimes after Rice's arrest gave law officers the evidence they needed to charge Rice as an accessory in Escambia County and try her for all of the crimes she faces at one time.

"The accessory charge and murder charge will be combined as a matter of judicial efficiency," Eddins said. "It gives us the ability to conduct one trial instead of two."

Greer and Moore were killed at a motel near Milton. Boyette was wanted at the time for beating Greer and was quickly named a suspect in the two shooting deaths.

Rice also faces a first-degree murder charge in Baldwin County, Alabama, for the fatal shooting of Peggy Broz. Broz was shot and killed Feb. 3 in front of her home in Lillian. Her car was stolen and later found abandoned.

Rice will make a first appearance Wednesday in Santa Rosa County and will be arraigned March 10 in Escambia County before Circuit Judge Joel Boles, the State Attorney’s Office said.

Eddins said his office would review the possibility of seeking the death penalty for Rice after the Legislature acts to reform death sentence statutes to meet Florida Supreme Court requirements.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Rice due in court Wednesday