MONTROSE, Pa. (AP) -- A former
police officer in northeastern Pennsylvania has pleaded no contest to voluntary
manslaughter in the death of his estranged wife more than 30 years ago.
The Times-Tribune (http://bit.ly/1exkOre)
said former Montrose police Sgt. John Walker was immediately sentenced Thursday
to two to four years behind bars in the 1983 death of Lynda Walker in New
Milford, Susquehanna County.
Walker was charged with
first-degree murder in October 2012 after a grand jury investigation and has
been in prison since then. The murder charge was dropped in exchange for
Walker's voluntary manslaughter no-contest plea.
Walker told authorities he
found his wife's body with a gun in her hand. Her death was initially ruled a
suicide.
Her body was exhumed in 2011
and a forensic examination concluded the gunshot wasn't self-inflicted.