A former Nassau County police officer has admitted to killing his 65-year-old wife in their upstate New York home where he spent the weekend with her body before his arrest last year.
Charles Wilkinson pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in Saratoga County court. He was originally charged with second-degree murder.
Prosecutors have said that the 69-year-old ex-cop killed his wife, Kathleen, “during a physical domestic dispute” in June 2014 and then “continued to live in the house over the weekend while his wife lay deceased in the bedroom.”
Deputies from the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office made the discovery at the couple’s Malta home when authorities were called to check the condition of the victim, who had not been heard from in several days.
Investigators later determined that the woman had been fatally strangled.
Prosecutors offered Wilkinson the plea deal because psychiatrists determined he was emotionally disturbed, according to The Associated Press.
He is scheduled to be sentenced July 23 to 15 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.
Wilkinson, who retired in 1984, collected a pension of more than $33,000 last year, records show.
