Woman accused in fatal high-rise fall turns down plea offer
BY BILL BRAUN World staff writer
Friday, March 01, 2013
A woman who is accused of murdering her husband by pushing him out of a window in a Tulsa high-rise building has turned down a plea negotiation offer that calls for a sentence of five years in prison plus 15 years of probation, a defense lawyer said in court Friday.
Amber Michelle Hilberling previously had rejected a plea offer from the District Attorney’s Office calling for a sentence of seven years in prison and 13 years suspended, according to her attorneys, April Seibert and Jasen Corns.
The rejected plea offers were put on the record at a hearing Friday. Hilberling’s jury trial is set for March 11 in Tulsa County District Judge Kurt Glassco's court.
Joshua Hilberling, 23, died June 7, 2011, when he fell 17 stories from the University Club Apartments at 1722 S. Carson Ave. to the top of a parking garage.
Amber Hilberling, now 21, is in the Tulsa Jail.
She is charged with second-degree murder, based on an accusation that she pushed her husband, causing him to fall through the window and to his death.
The prosecution filed an alternative charge of first-degree manslaughter, involving an allegation that the death occurred while she was committing a misdemeanor domestic assault and battery.
Second-degree murder has a sentencing range of 10 years to life in prison. First-degree manslaughter allows a possible sentence of four years to life in prison.
Both of those charges require a defendant to serve 85 percent of any prison term before being eligible for parole.
