By Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE December 11, 2009 08:46 pm
— A 50-year prison sentence has been given to a Terre Haute man who admitted to killing his girlfriend in September 2008.
Christopher Fulwider, 34, faced up to 50 years in prison in the death of Carolee Reid, according to the terms of a plea agreement accepted by Judge David Bolk of Vigo Superior Court 3.
“We were very pleased with the sentencing,” Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said. “The judge gave him the maximum sentence under the plea agreement. He had a very lengthy record, and a lot of his record were violent offenses.”
While Fulwider was being led from the courtroom after the sentencing, he resisted deputies accompanying him and had to be wrestled to the floor. Additional officers were called to the scene to assist in getting Fulwider on the courthouse elevator and back to the jail.
In November, Fulwider signed a plea agreement that dropped a murder charge and allowed him to plead guilty to a lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter, a class-B felony. He also admitted to being a habitual offender, and waived the right to appeal his sentence.
The plea agreement left the sentencing to the discretion of Judge Bolk.
On Friday, Bolk set the sentence at 20 years on the manslaughter charge, and an additional 30 years for being a habitual offender.
Fulwider has been in jail since being arrested Sept. 13, 2008, at an apartment on South Eighth Street. Police found Reid’s body in a bedroom at the apartment, and Fulwider later told police he had placed Reid in a headlock prior to her death.
The habitual offender charge comes from Fulwider’s conviction in 1997 for aggravated battery on a child and his 2001 conviction for attempted burglary.
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
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