PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) - A Bluefield woman faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of another woman.
Media outlets report that 43-year-old Judith Helen Kowaleski-Slagle pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Tuesday in Mercer County Circuit Court. She had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge.
Police have said Kowaleski-Slagle and 42-year-old Elizabeth Slagle of Bluefield clashed in March 2013 in text messages and phone calls following an altercation between their children aboard a school bus.
Slagle was shot once with a .38-caliber handgun. A pink hand-held stun gun was found next to her body.
Kowaleski-Slagle is scheduled to be sentenced March 10.
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