NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A 75-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon after prosecutors say she killed her son-in-law.
Forty-nine-year-old Douglas Randolph was found shot to death inside Nettie Luckett's home on Culbertson Avenue in Aug. 28, 2011, and police arrested 75-year-old Luckett. Randolph was Luckett's son-in-law.
Click HERE to view our original story on the case.
Luckett was initially charged with murder, but on Thursday, she pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge. The plea deal calls for the judge to sentence her to 30 years in state prison.
She is scheduled to be officially sentenced on July 12.
New information about the shooting emerged from court records on Thursday. Prosecutors say Randolph was shot by a .38 caliber revolver that had been purchased by Luckett on July 9, 2011, roughly a month-and-a-half before Randolph was killed.
Prosecutors would not comment on a motive for the shooting, but indicated that it took place in a moment of "sudden heat."
"There is something that clouded what would be her normal reason," chief deputy prosecutor Steve Owen said. "You become inflamed; you become enraged, and that you committed that murder upon seeing that."
Owen could not comment on Luckett's motive.
She answered the judge's questions quietly and calmly in court.
Luckett's family members declined to comment. Some of them will testify publicly at her sentencing hearing.
Thursday's plea deal is similar to a plea deal Luckett rejected in April. At that time, prosecutors believed she would accept the deal, but in a surprise move, Luckett told her attorney she was not willing to go through with it.
"Once we got in the courtroom, Mrs. Luckett informed her attorney...that she decided not to go through with the plea agreement, and not to plead guilty today," said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Steve Owen back in April.
Prosecutors said at the time that the move was a surprise to everyone.
Copyright 2012 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
Nettie Luckett
Nettie Luckett (Source: Floyd County Jail)
Douglas Randolph
