Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Topeka, KS: Woman convicted of killing again

BY FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
February 9, 2010 - 4:37pm
A woman who served prison time for the 1992 shooting death of her boyfriend in Topeka was convicted Monday in Omaha, Neb., of charges linked to the slaying of another man.

Carol Wilkins, 38, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and using a weapon in killing 45-year-old Brent St. John in September 2008. Her sentencing is set for April.

Prosecutor John Alagaban told the Omaha World-Herald that he reduced the charge from first-degree murder because he had concerns about some of the witnesses to events before the slaying at St. John's apartment.

He said the witnesses had been drinking at the same bar as Wilkins and St. John the night St. John was killed.

A neighbor told the Omaha World-Herald that St. John was found on his bed with his throat slashed.

Wilkins was transported to Omaha in January 2009 from the Topeka Correctional Facility, where she had been booked in Oct. 1, 2008, for violating conditions of her parole, which was granted after she served prison time for voluntary manslaughter.

Wilkins had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in Topeka after being charged in the April 1992 shooting death of her boyfriend, George L. Okal, a Kenyan seeking political asylum in the United States. Okal was shot at point-blank range in the house the couple shared in the 1100 block of S.W. Buchanan.

No comments: