BOULDER, Colo. -- Tess Damm pleaded guilty Monday morning to murder charges in connection with the February 2007 slaying of her mother, Linda Damm.

The 16-year-old pleaded guilty, as a juvenile, to second-degree murder and, as an adult, to solicitation to commit second-degree murder. The plea came during a disposition hearing.

She will be sentenced to five years in the Department of Youth Corrections on the juvenile charge. She will remain in youth corrections until she turns 21.

For the guilty plea on the adult charge of solicitation, Damm faces 16 to 20 years in adult prison, once she's released from juvenile confinement.

She will be sentenced on May 5.

"I think it's a comforting thing to know," said Cmdr. Mark Battersby with the Lafayette Police Dept.

"The officers that were involved in the case, I think, will look at this as a victory," Battersby said.

Tess Damm's boyfriend pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January in the slaying.

Bryan Grove, 18, was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In fact, all four defendants entered guilty pleas, saving the community and family members the intensity of criminal trials.

"All along, the hard work that they've done, the effort that they put is has been rewarded, " Battersby said.

Investigators said Grove stabbed Damm in a bedroom of her Lafayette, Colo., home and then wrapped her body up and put it in her car. Tess Damm was not present when the slaying occurred but had asked Grove to kill her mother, according to court records.

Authorities said Damm's body was left in the back of her car while it was parked in the driveway of her home for weeks before it was discovered by police in February 2007.

An autopsy revealed Linda Damm had been stabbed 18 times in the neck. An investigation revealed Grove and Tess Damm partied in the house while the body decomposed outside.

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