BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- Instead of undergoing a competency hearing Thursday, a Union Township man pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder, but still faces a possible life sentence.
Steve Colburn had been charged with aggravated murder in the April 15 shooting death of Diane Donnelly, 33, the mother of his 8-year-old son.
The shooting happened inside the Union Township home of the boy's baby sitter in the 6400 block of Tylersville Road while the boy was sleeping. He neither saw nor heard the shooting, authorities said. Ms. Donnelly was shot several times while hiding in a closet. Mr. Colburn, who was 37 at the time of the shooting, was transferred May 1 to the Twin Valley Psychiatric System's Dayton campus, a maximum-security facility, after causing a disturbance in the Butler County Jail. But Mr. Colburn returned to the jail May 15, said Capt. Charlie Profitt, jail warden. Mr. Colburn remains in the jail on $250,100 bond.
Mr. Colburn underwent a psychiatric examination, and results were supposed to have been discussed Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court, along with his lawyer's arguments to suppress certain evidence.
However, that plan changed, and Mr. Colburn pleaded guilty to murder with a gun specification. The charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years, plus three years for the gun specification. Attempts to reach Mr. Colburn's lawyer, Lyn Cunningham, were unsuccessful.
