GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — One of several people charged in the deaths of a couple at a Kansas county fair last year has pleaded guilty.

54-year-old Michael Fowler Jr., of Sarasota, Florida, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder and one count of theft. In exchange for the plea, a capital murder charge was dropped.

The bodies of Alfred “Sonny” Carpenter and Pauline Carpenter of Wichita were discovered in July in shallow graves near Van Buren, Arkansas. Prosecutors say the Carpenters were killed at the Barton County Fair, where they were vendors. The suspects worked for the carnival company at the fair.

Investigators say one suspect posed as a carnival mafia bossand ordered the other suspects to kill the couple. Police have said the “carnival mafia” does not exist.