Lorain woman takes deal in fatal stabbing; could be released from prison early

ELYRIA — A Lorain woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend in the chest pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence charges.

BRUCE BISHOP / CHRONICLE
Anna Carter faces attorney Daniel Wightman before pleading guilty on Thursday.

Prosecutors dropped murder and other charges against Anna Carter, 33, as part of a plea bargain that will see her sentenced next month to four years and nine months in prison. Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski told Carter that unless she has problems in prison he will grant her early release after she’s served six months behind bars.

“It was too good a deal to turn down,” defense attorney Mike Duff said after the hearing, which came just days before Carter was scheduled to stand trial on the murder charges that could have sent her to prison for life.

Dan Wightman, another of Carter’s defense attorneys, said he had planned to argue that Carter stabbed Jerome Phillips Jr., 40, in self-defense Aug. 11, 2013.

Carter and a girlfriend were talking about another man when Phillips overheard them and became upset because he thought they were talking about him, Wightman said. The girlfriend left, but Phillips continued to be angry.

“He came at her,” Duff said. “He had a knife, she took it from him, and he lunged at her and she stabbed him.”

Duff said that the wounded Phillips told Carter he’d been stabbed before and not to call 911.

When Carter ultimately called for help, she told the dispatcher that Phillips was drunk, vomiting and bleeding under his arm but didn’t say he had been stabbed.

It took paramedics about 15 minutes to get to the apartment complex at 5520 Beavercrest Drive, a response time LifeCare later acknowledged was too long and led to discipline against the paramedics involved.

County Prosecutor Dennis Will said that Carter didn’t talk to Lorain police investigators after the killing but has since made a statement to prosecutors explaining that Phillips attacked her. He said his office was able to compare the evidence with her story and corroborate at least some of what she said.

“He had a ton of complaints of violence toward women involving a knife,” Will said.

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