Welch agrees to guilty plea

After 19^th Judicial District Court Judge James B. Wheelis rejected an initial plea agreement that limited his ability to set sentencing, Kristina Lynn Welch agreed to plead guilty Monday to negligent homicide in the Dec. 7, 2011, shooting death of her husband, Charles Bryan Welch.

To obtain a guilty plea, Lincoln County Attorney Bernie Cassidy agreed to dismiss deliberate homicide charges against Welch, who has spent her 376^th consecutive night in the Lincoln County Jail.

Welch attorney Jennifer Streano initially presented a plea-bargain agreement that would have given Welch credit for time served in the Lincoln County Jail. It also would have suspended 17 years of the maximum 20-year sentence for good behavior, meaning she could have served as little as three years for the death of her husband.

However, Wheelis would have none of that, rejecting the bargained plea.

“Unless I have full authority to set sentencing, I will not agree to this,” Wheelis said. “I guess then we have nothing more.”

Cassidy then agreed to withdraw the prosecution’s acceptance of the agreement, and it was soon after that Welch and Streano retreated to the jury room to further discuss an amended plea agreement.

“Yes, it is rare, but I’ve seen it before,” Streano said of Wheelis’ rejection of the initial plea agreement. “I just think (Wheelis) wants to be able to come to his own decision on sentencing. It’s a difficult decision, but I understand it.”

For Cassidy, with more trial experience, he has seen a judge reject a plea agreement previously.

“Yes, I’ve seen it before, more than once,” Cassidy said.

Overshadowed by the initial agreement was the testimony of Welch, now 54, as Wheelis walked her through the process to make sure she understood her guilty plea.

When Wheelis asked Welch whether she understood she is admitting guilt in the shooting death of her husband, Welch offered an emotional, stammered response: Ye, … Yes.”

Welch’s plea pins on her the shooting death of her husband in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2011, in their Granite Lake Road home, the result of an argument with her husband about money. Charles Welch was a retired prison warden in Florida.

Police questioned Kristina Welch after the fatal shooting, further drawing suspicion upon herself for delaying in calling for an ambulance. When emergency officials responded to the Welch home on Granite Lake Road they found a Charles Welch who had died hours before.

Wheelis has set sentencing for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28.