A Randolph County woman whose testimony against the man charged with killing her brother in 1998 resulted in overturning the man's conviction pleaded guilty to fatally shooting her ex-husband, prosecutors said.
Kathy Jane Hart, 55, of Maynard entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder Friday in Randolph County Circuit Court. Judge Harold S. Erwin sentenced Hart to 30 years in prison -- the maximum sentence allowed, said Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce of Newport.
Hart was charged with the Nov. 10, 2015, death of John D. Hart, 48, of Randolph County.
Police found John Hart's body a half-mile from his home on Harper Cemetery Road between Pocahontas and Maynard. Hart is the son of John J. Hart, a former Randolph County judge who held office in the mid-1990s.
Boyce said Kathy Hart shot her husband twice in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun after an argument at his home. She then tied his body to the back of her truck and dragged it down a gravel road.
Hart was charged originally with abuse of a corpse in addition to second-degree murder, but Boyce dropped that charge in exchange for her plea, the prosecutor said.
"We are pleased that the defendant has admitted her guilt ... and spared her own family the burden of enduring what would no doubt have been a terrible emotional experience at trial," Boyce said.
The prosecutor said John Hart's family, as well as the three children of John and Kathy Hart, consented to the plea agreement.
Kathy Hart's testimony in the 2004 capital murder trial of Billy Dale Green of Warm Springs resulted in a state Supreme Court ruling that overturned his conviction. Hart is the sister of Carl Elliott, who was killed along with his wife, Lisa Elliott, and two children at their northern Randolph County home July 29, 1998.
Green was convicted of four counts of capital murder and his son, Charles "Chad" Green, was convicted of first-degree murder.
During Green's trial, Boyce contended the slayings were carried out in retaliation for the theft of 10 marijuana plants from Green.
Kathy Hart testified that she feared for her brother's life because her cousin, who took some of Green's marijuana, "mysteriously disappeared."
Boyce said the cousin's body was found in the bottom of an abandoned well near Dalton in Randolph County. Boyce said the cousin appeared to have fallen in the well in a "freak accident." No charges were filed in his death.
Hart testified that she thought Green was responsible for the death of her cousin.
"That statement created a reversible error," Boyce said.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that Erwin's decision to allow Hart's statement was an abuse of the judge's discretion and in a 4-3 vote threw out Green's four convictions and ordered him tried again.
A Randolph County jury found Green guilty again in 2012.
State Desk on 11/22/2016