James Kline of Paint Township scheduled for sentencing in connection with wife's death
In early July of 2019, investigators discovered human remains under a double-wide trailer along Dark Shade Drive in Paint Township.
James and Cora Kline resided in this trailer. ForensicDX of Windber later identified the remains as Cora Kline, who had been listed as a missing person.
On the same day Cora Kline's remains were found, her husband, James Dwayne Kline, was charged in connection with her death. He has been incarcerated in the Somerset County Jail since awaiting trial.
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After nearly three years, the 50-year-old man has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, a second-degree misdemeanor, after a plea arrangement between the county's district attorney and public defender's offices just weeks before he was scheduled to go to trial beginning Jan. 24 in the Somerset County Court of Common Pleas.
Kline had been formally arraigned on the charges in county court Sept. 30, 2019. Since then he has gone through 13 call of the criminal trial lists prior to scheduling a trial.
Initially, Kline was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation, abuse of a corpse, simple assault, false reports to a police officer and tampering with evidence.
The charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation, simple assault, false reports to police officer and tampering with evidence are requested to be withdrawn by the prosecution. President Judge D. Gregory Geary, who was to preside over the trial, has the final say on whether he will accept the plea arrangement.
Kline went to state police and filed a missing person report on Cora Kline, claiming she had been missing since April 4, 2019, according to court documents. Kline was last seen by her husband on the day she reportedly went missing.
Public Defender Director Tiffany Marie Stanley represents Kline, who is scheduled for sentencing in county court March 3.
Follow Judy D.J. Ellich on Twitter at @dajudye or email at judye@dailyamerican.com
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Paint Township man pleads guilty to murdering his wife in 2019
