Woman Admits Killing Husband's Grandmother With Antifreeze: Prosecutor

Woodbury, NJ -- A Brooklawn woman has pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter in the death of her husband’s grandmother, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office announced on Tuesday.

Anne Castagna, 46, admitted that she murdered 88-year-old Mary Groatman by giving her a drink mixed with antifreeze on Aug. 19, 2012.

She said she visited Groatman while she was a patient at the Deptford Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care.

Prosecutors had alleged that Castagna researched the effects of antifreeze on the body, and allegedly slipped Groatman ethylene glycol—the toxic chemical that is the primary ingredient in antifreeze.

Hours after the visit, Groatman was found in a coma and died after she was removed from life support.

Castagna made the admission on Monday, one day before jury selection was set to begin in her case.

The first-degree murder charge she was facing was reduced to first-degree aggravated manslaughter, to which she pleaded guilty.

She faces 25 years in New Jersey state prison, with a condition that she will not be eligible for parole until she serves 85 percent of the sentence, or 21 years, three months and one day.

Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson accepted the plea after receiving approval from the court district’s assignment judge and presiding criminal court judge, in light of the imminent trial date and because the normal time to enter a guilty plea had passed.

Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 5. Castagna’s bail was revoked pending sentencing.

She has been in jail in default of $250,000 bail since her arrest on Aug. 23, 2012.