A former Georgia Democratic congressional candidate pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter in the death of her husband and received a 30-year prison sentence.
Kellie Lynn Collins, 33, had faced murder charges in the shooting death of her 41-year-old husband Curt Cain last August in Aiken, South Carolina. The two married a week before his death, and she was made the beneficiary of his insurance less than a month before he was killed, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
As part of the plea arrangement, a grand larceny charge against Collins was dropped. Cain served as the treasurer on her campaign to unseat Rep. Jody Hice (R., Ga.) in the state's 10th Congressional District. Collins lost in the Democratic primary and ended her campaign in 2017. Federal Election Commission fillings revealed she raised less than $6,000 on a liberal platform.
Police said she shot Cain in the back and then threw the gun in a pond. It was never recovered:
According to the Aiken County Coroner's Office, an autopsy revealed Cain had been shot and died from loss of blood. She was made the beneficiary of Cain's insurance about two to three weeks before his death, The Augusta Chronicle previously reported.
When officers responded to the scene, they noticed that Collins and Cain's vehicle, a blue Subaru Legacy, were missing. During the hearing, the Aiken Solicitor's Office said Collins shot Cain in the back, cleaned herself up and left in Cain's vehicle.
She later changed vehicles at a Grovetown Walmart Parking lot and began driving a Chevrolet Tahoe. According to the solicitor's office, she threw the weapon into a pond while driving on Interstate 20, but it was never recovered.
Hice went on to defeat eventual Democratic nominee Tabitha Johnson-Green in the general election last year.