Gina A. Murphy remains in prison after admitting this month in Dauphin County Court that she killed her ex-husband in August 2012 in Williamstown.
Murphy, 49, of Williamstown, pleaded guilty July 17 to third-degree murder, tampering with evidence, false swearing and unsworn falsification to authorities, First Assistant District Attorney Francis T. Chardo III said Monday.
President Judge Todd A. Hoover accepted Murphy’s plea, ordered preparation of a pre-sentence investigation and scheduled sentencing for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 21, 2015.
Murphy’s plea was not a negotiated one, meaning the sentence, within the bounds of the law, will be entirely up to Hoover. The maximum possible sentence for third-degree murder is 20 to 40 years in a state correctional institution; for each of the other crimes, the maximum possible sentence is one to two years in a state correctional institution.
She remains in prison without bail pending sentencing.
State police at Lykens charged Murphy with fatally shooting Daniel Joseph Murphy, 52, about 11 p.m. Aug. 20, 2012, in their Williamstown home during a domestic incident. Although they were living together, the Murphys were not married to each other.
“They were both married to other people,” Chardo said.
Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said at the time of the shooting that Murphy died from a small-caliber gunshot wound to the chest at a home in the 400 block of East Market Street. Hetrick ruled the death a homicide.