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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAn Indiana woman who successfully argued she had ineffective legal counsel at her murder trial for the 2001 slaying of her boyfriend in Lafayette during a sex game has been released.
The Journal & Courier reported 45-year-old Anastazia Schmid, who spent more than 18 years behind bars, was released Tuesday after pleading guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter.
She apologized, was effectively sentenced to time-served, and will be on parole.
Jurors convicted Schmid of killing her boyfriend and business partner, Tony Heathcote. He was stabbed 39 times. She was serving a 50-year prison sentence.
Southern District Senior Judge William T. Lawrence in May ordered Schmid’s murder conviction vacated. He wrote in his ruling that testimony that she was “psychotic” and “heavily medicated” raised questions about her competence, but her lawyer didn’t seek a competency hearing. In granting Schmid’s habeas petition, the court noting she testifed that she heard a voice telling her she was the Messiah. The federal court had ordered her freed unless the state opted within 120 days to retry her.
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