BREAKING NEWS

Wife of slain California mayor pleads guilty to manslaughter

The wife of a small-town Southern California mayor shot dead during a domestic dispute in their home two years ago pleaded guilty on Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter in his slaying, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.
Under terms of the her plea deal with prosecutors, Lyvette Crespo, 45, is expected to be sentenced to 90 days in the county jail, five years of formal probation and 500 hours of community service, the D.A. said in a statement.
Her punishment is also to include an anger management course, prosecutors said. Sentencing is set for Jan. 5. If the judge decides to impose a harsher penalty, Crespo will have an opportunity to change her plea.
If convicted at trial, Crespo could face up to 21 years in prison.
She was accused of fatally shooting her husband, Daniel Crespo, 45, then mayor of the Los Angeles suburb of Bell Gardens, three times in the chest during a heated quarrel on Sept. 30, 2014, inside their condominium.
According to a police account of the incident, the couple's then 19-year-old son, Daniel Jr., intervened in the argument, leading to a physical confrontation between father and son, which prompted his mother to grab a pistol and open fire on her husband. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.