HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A Cabell County woman entered a Kennedy plea Thursday in connection with a Feb. 2008 shooting death.
The plea allows for the conviction of Teresa Baker without her admitting guilt in the death of Jeffrey Sadler. She shot and killed Sadler, her daughter’s boyfriend, during a domestic dispute.
Baker pleaded guilty to both voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Under the agreement the judge holds the pleas in abeyance while Baker serves five years probation. If she completes that time with no problem the misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter plea will be accepted.
Baker has maintained she was trying to protect her daughter and she said it again when she spoke with reporters after Thursday’s hearing.
“I did what I had to do and I do hate it that I ever killed anybody,” she said.
Sadler was shot three times including once in the back, once in the chest and a third shot in the head. Prosecutors have argued for years Sadler was not a threat when the third shot was fired. Cabell County Prosecutor Corky Hammers said Sadler used excessive force.
Baker said the situation escalated as she waited for police to arrive more than an hour after she made the original call. She said she had to do something. She refused to go into specifics about what happened that night when speaking after Thursday’s hearing.
“I don’t want to go into details how it happened out of deference for his family because for them it’s just awful,” she said.
Sadler and Baker’s daughter lived at 156 Cedar St. in Huntington next door to where Baker lived on Norway Ave.