By JON SARCHE
Associated Press Writer
DENVER- A woman who had been serving a life sentence without parole because her burglary accomplice gunned down a police officer could be free in 12 years under a plea bargain announced Monday.
Lisl Auman, who was handcuffed in the back of a police car when officer Bruce VanderJagt was killed, was convicted of murder and other charges in 1998. But the Colorado Supreme Court overturned her conviction in March, citing faulty jury instructions.
Rather than trying Auman again on the same charges, prosecutors opted for a plea bargain.
On Monday, Auman pleaded guilty to burglary and accessory charges. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a felony first-degree murder charge and a second burglary charge.
“It’s a just disposition whenever Ms. Auman would accept her responsibility and her role in the events that caused the death of a Denver police officer,” said district attorney’s spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough.
Prosecutors said they would ask for a sentence of up to 20 years, with credit for the eight years Auman has already served.
She would spend the 12 years in a halfway-house-style program that monitors offenders while helping them get jobs and training. Her sentence could be reduced by up to three years if she performs well in the program, said community corrections assistant director Greg Mauro.
A judge still must approve the sentence at a hearing set for Aug. 22.
VanderJagt was shot by Mattheus Jaehnig, Auman’s accomplice in a burglary at the home of Auman’s former boyfriend. Afterward, Jaehnig shot and killed himself.
Under Colorado’s felony murder law, a person involved in certain felonies is guilty of murder if someone is killed during the crime or during the flight from it.
VanderJagt’s brother-in-law, Robert Simonich, criticized the deal.
“Bruce does not get that second chance. She does,” he said.
While appealing her conviction, Auman had won support from the late writer Hunter S. Thompson, the late singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, and actors Sean Penn, Benecio Del Toro and Johnny Depp.