Cold murder case ends in plea

WARREN — Crystal Code suffers from asthma and was convinced she would die before her mother’s killer was brought to justice.

But the 13-year-old cold case, solved through DNA, reached a conclusion Monday in the Trumbull County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge W. Wyatt McKay when 35-year-old William K. Gunther Jr. pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Gunther was sentenced to 13 to 28 years in prison for the Jan. 15, 1994, shooting death of Priscilla Code, 48, who lived on Highland Avenue at the time. In exchange for the plea, a charge of raping Priscilla Code was dismissed.

“I thought I would die before I knew who killed my mother,” Crystal Code, now 43, said after the sentencing.

She noted that she had never seen Gunther before Monday in the courtroom.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and at Vindy.com