A Ventura County woman accepted a plea agreement Monday that will spare her further time in jail in connection with an altercation outside a courtroom involving a witness in an alleged love-triangle murder in Tehachapi.
Karen Lynn Hudgins, 54, pleaded no contest to a count of misdemeanor battery. The other charges filed against her, including felony counts of threatening a witness, were dismissed.
Judge Colette M. Humphrey ordered Hudgins to perform 40 hours of community service and attend 52 weeks of anger management classes. The judge told her she can fulfill those requirements in Ventura County, where she lives.
Woodland Hills-based lawyer Sharon Beth Marshall, representing Hudgins, declined comment afterward.
Hudgins was arrested Jan. 10 following the arraignment of her friend Sabrina Limon, who authorities say conspired with her lover to kill her husband at his workplace in Tehachapi 2 1/2 years ago.
According to court documents, Hudgins barreled into a witness in the case outside the courtroom, knocking the woman into a wall and telling her, “You’re going to hell.” A sheriff’s detective witnessed the incident and intervened.
The detective, Robert Meyer, wrote in court documents that Hudgins intentionally ran into the witness, using her shoulder and hands to slam her into the wall.
He grabbed Hudgins and told her she was under arrest, but she pushed him and a brief struggle ensued, he wrote. Another detective assisted Meyer in restraining Hudgins.
As they walked past doors leading to the downtown jail, Hudgins flung herself to the ground and yelled at the detectives, the documents said. They got her to her feet and walked her to the jail’s booking area.
She was released several days later after posting bond on $50,000 bail.
Hudgins told detectives she became angry because the witness had been involved in a romantic relationship with Limon’s husband and was on his life insurance policy, court documents said. She said the witness, expected to testify at Limon’s trial, also stood to receive $100,000 in reward money offered by the husband’s employer.
The witness told detectives she has previously been threatened by family and friends of Limon and is concerned for her safety, the documents said.
Limon, 37, has pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder, attempted murder, poisoning and accessory charges in the killing of her husband, Robert Limon. A trial is set for Aug. 21.
Sabrina Limon’s former lover, Jonathan Hearn, 27, pleaded guilty in January to gunning down Robert Limon, 38, at a railway building in Tehachapi on Aug. 17, 2014. He testified at a preliminary hearing earlier this year that he and Sabrina Limon had carried on a lengthy affair and had long plotted to kill her husband.
Hearn has agreed to testify against Sabrina Limon as part of the plea agreement, which stipulates a sentence of 25 years and four months in prison. Prosecutors dropped a murder charge after Hearn pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a gun enhancement, among other charges.
