20-year-old woman takes plea in killing of 48-year-old NC cop she dated in high school
A former sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina was found dead in a park more than two years ago.
Now his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend is going to prison on a charge of second-degree murder, media outlets report.
Caitlin Ridgeway entered an Alford plea on Friday, meaning she did not admit guilt but accepted prosecutors had enough information to convict her, WITN reported.
Her plea deal included charges of second-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon, according to the media outlet. A Superior Court judge in Onslow County sentenced her to between 24 and 32 years in prison, WITN said.
Another suspect, William Welch Jr., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in March, WCTI 12 reported.
William Clifton, 48, was found dead in a park by a jogger in 2017, according to the media outlet. Investigators determined he had been shot multiple times.
Clifton had left the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department in early 2016 and was working as a school resource officer at a high school in Jacksonville at the time of the murder, according to WNCT.
He had been in a romantic relationship with Ridgeway for two years before, the Jacksonville Daily News reported.
“Prosecutors say there was no evidence that the relationship was not consensual, and the legal age of consent is 16,” according to WITN.
But the relationship appeared to have soured, and Ridgeway sought a protective order against Clifton before he resigned from the sheriff’s office in 2016, WNCT reported.
Pictures of pills and guns and allegations of domestic violence prompted the order, according to WITN. Clifton also reportedly contacted her again despite being told not to while an internal investigation was ongoing at the sheriff’s office.
On the night of the killing, the Daily News reported Ridgeway asked Welch to take her to the park.
She left the vehicle for a time, at which point Welch went after her. He found her down a pathway “hugging and kissing Clifton,” according to the newspaper.
Welch told prosecutors that he tried to attack Clifton and fell, the Daily News reported. He said Ridgeway shot at Clifton with his father’s Glock 21 .45 caliber pistol and, when the gun jammed, he hit Clifton over the head with it.
Neither reportedly admitted to shooting him.
“Mr. Welch said Ms. Ridgeway did, and Ms. Ridgeway never admitted any involvement in the homicide,” Assistant District Attorney Bob Roupe told the newspaper. “So the only people that would know that for certain are Ms. Ridgeway and Mr. Welch.”
