CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -
A man serving a six- to 14-year prison sentence for the 2010 shooting death of his wife has asked a Franklin County judge to withdraw his guilty plea.
Chris Jones pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter last year for shooting 27-year-old Kristen Runyon inside their Saint Thomas Township home. He told authorities he mistook the woman for an intruder.
Jones claims he got bad advice from his former lawyer. His current lawyer, Dennis Boyle, seems optimistic the judge will grant his client's request.
"We are pretty satisfied with the way things happened. We think the hearing went pretty well," Boyle said after a hearing Friday.
During the hearing, Jones claimed his former lawyer, David Keller, pressured him to plead guilty after telling him he didn't stand a chance. On the stand during the hearing, Keller denied that, saying he encouraged Jones to get a second opinion before entering his plea.
The judge has given Jones and his lawyers one week to submit additional briefing in the case and a week for prosecutors to respond. A decision is expected by the end of the month.
From early on in the investigation, Runyon's family has said they thought the shooting was intentional. They claim that three days before she was killed, Runyon talked to her mother about divorcing Jones.
According to court documents in the case, Jones told investigators he was awakened by noises and grabbed a .40 caliber handgun from a nightstand drawer, then fired when he saw someone running toward him.
Jones said he called 911 after he turned on a light and discovered his wife on the hallway floor with a gunshot wound to her chest. He later admitted that he gave no warning before firing the fatal shot from about two-to-four feet, police said in the court papers.
He also said the couple's dogs, who normally bark when a stranger enters the house, remained silent until the shot was fired, but assumed his wife was in bed because she had been asleep when he had twice hit the snooze button on their alarm clock earlier in the morning, according to the documents.
Kristen Runyon
Chris Jones
