Wife ran over husband, dragged him 50 feet to his death, WI cops say. She pleads guilty

A woman who has maintained her innocence in the 2023 killing of her husband has now pleaded guilty to one of the two homicide-related charges she faced, Wisconsin court records show.

Mary Terry, accused of running over and killing her husband on Oct. 19, 2023, pleaded guilty to homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, according to the court filings. As part of her plea deal, a first-degree intentional homicide charge was dropped.

Deputies in Laona were called to the residential area around 9 p.m. for a report of a man lying in the road, according to a criminal complaint. A man had called 911, but when authorities arrived, they found Terry standing over the victim.

“Is he dead?” Terry asked the responding deputy about the man, later identified as her husband.

The victim, Donald Britten Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene, court records show. His preliminary cause of death was listed as “blunt force trauma caused by compression.”

Terry, 50, said her husband had been struck by a vehicle, but she said she did not know who committed the act, authorities said. When deputies inspected her truck at her home nearby, they found damage to the driver’s side bumper, headlight and rear box panel.

She said Britten was the last person to drive her truck, noting they had been in an argument leading up to the fatal collision, according to the complaint.

Terry told deputies she looked out her home’s window after being dropped off by her husband and saw the truck parked nearby. She said the truck was still running and she drove it back to her house to get her phone, indicating she did not see Britten’s body.

When Terry went back to the location where her truck was, the 911 caller was standing beside her husband’s lifeless body, authorities said.

Terry, who had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .298, denied she had anything to do with her husband’s death, court records show.

Evidence at the scene showed Britten was dragged 48 feet, authorities said. Injuries he sustained were consistent to the damage on the truck.

Though Terry never admitted to striking her husband, her attorney, Albert Moustakis, said there was not enough evidence to find an alternative cause of death, according to WJFW.

The news outlet reported she faces a maximum imprisonment of 25 years.

Terry is scheduled to be sentenced May 16, court records show.

Laona is about a 100-mile drive northwest from Green Bay.