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Accused Killer Will Admit Manslaughter

Burlington, Vermont — September 20, 2006

A Franklin County woman accused of murdering her sister has agreed to plead guilty to a less serious charge.

Carolyn Walters had been awaiting trial accused of second-degree murder for killing her sister Mary Abeling in 2003. Abeling was found dead in her Colchester condo. The Medical Examiner ruled she had been clubbed on the head several times with a glass wine decanter. This summer a district court judge ruled prosecutors on the case had improperly failed to provide evidence to Walters and her lawyers. Today prosecutors agreed to permit Walters to plead guilty to a lesser charge.

"That's correct," said David Williams, Walters' lawyer, speaking to Channel 3 Wednesday afternoon.

"The state has just offered us a plea to a manslaughter and Carolyn has accepted the plea. She signed the plea deal agreement and she'll change her plea tomorrow. The state is what they call "capped" in their sentencing recommendation to ten to fifteen years. And Carolyn is free to argue for whatever sentence she thinks is appropriate," Williams added

Walters' layers had hired experts who would have testified at trial that Abeling had been suicidal and had medical problems that could have caused her death, rather than the blunt trauma injuries to the head. Walters is scheduled to change her plea at a 9 A.M. hearing at the Burlington District Court.

Brian Joyce - Channel 3 News