Monday, March 22, 1999
Man pleads guilty to manslaughter
Says woman died when car crashed
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURLINGTON — Larry Ray Freeman has escaped a murder indictment in the 1994 death of Diane Washer, whose bones were found in 1997, by pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
The 27-year-old Union man admitted his role in the Covington mother's death when he pleaded guilty Friday in Boone Circuit Court.
He will face 10 to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced April 13 before Boone Circuit Judge Jay Bamberger. The commonwealth attorney's office has recommended the maximum sentence of 20 years.
Mr. Freeman could have faced life in prison if indicted on the murder charge that Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Linda Tally Smith was promising to pursue if Mr. Freeman didn't plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
Mr. Freeman has told police that he was on a three-day drunk when he ran into Mrs. Washer at a Covington bar on the night of July 20, 1994.
Mrs. Washer and her husband, who worked with Mr. Freeman at the same con struction site, had been in a domestic dispute and she arrived at the bar in an intoxicated state for last call.
She and Mr. Freeman bought a case of beer and got into Mr. Freeman's car. Mr. Freeman has said the two drove into rural Boone County, drinking, smoking and taking pills.
He has told police he blacked out and only regained consciousness when his car crashed. He said he saw Mrs. Washer fly out the passenger side door and when he got out of the car, her head was bleeding and she was dead.
That's when he said he dragged her body to Gunpowder Creek, not far from Dale Williamson Road, and covered her body with rocks in an area covered with heavy brush.
He told police he went to his mother's house and drank some more. He later didn't know whether the accident merely had been a dream.
Mrs. Washer was reported missing a month later. Her bones were found along Gunpowder Creek in June 1997 and identified a year later after DNA tests.
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