STROUDSBURG – Thomas Cook Jr. will spend at least 15 years in prison for the August 2001 killing of Randy Huegel of Easton.

Cook, 45, was sentenced in Monroe County Court to a term of 15 to 40 years on his guilty plea to third degree murder.  The plea came April 2, the day after a jury was seated for a trial.

Cook admitted the killing and led authorities to the remote area where he buried the body.  For that, he was allowed to plead to a lesser offence that would not mean life in prison. 

Prosecutors maintained Cook killed Huegel, 43, a tenant in apartments Cook owned in Price Township, because he believed the victim had stolen money from his father, who was ailing at the time.