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WILKES-BARRE — More than two years after Rebecca Getz’s death, her brother, Eric Nelson Getz, pleaded guilty to her murder on Thursday, and will spend at least a decade in prison.
Getz, 41, entered a guilty plea on a count of third degree murder on Thursday before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough. A plea agreement with prosecutors was filed in county court, which provides insight into the sentence prosecutors will be recommending.
Getz was accused of fatally stabbing his sister in February 2017 after an argument between the siblings at the family’s Plymouth Township home.
He told police his sister hit him in the head with an ice scraper and called him a “retard” during the argument. At his preliminary hearing on the day of Rebecca Getz’s death, he told reporters, “She was a (expletive); I killed her.”
Getz fully admitted to this in court on Thursday with his guilty plea. Police said Getz went into the kitchen to retrieve a large knife, which he used to stab her to death.
Throughout the case against Getz, there was question over whether he was competent to stand trial. At a competency hearing last fall, mental health professionals for the defense said Getz had suffered from years of brain trauma after a 1994 car accident and a habit of huffing glue and abusing marijuana in high school. Testimony suggested Getz’s IQ was between 54 and 62, far lower than the average 100.
Ultimately, though, Vough found Getz competent to stand trial, agreeing with a mental health professional for the prosecution who said Getz’s intellectual deficiencies would not affect his ability to understand the legal proceedings.
In a guilty plea agreement signed by both Getz and his attorney, Paul Walker, along with the prosecution team, prosecutors say they will recommend a sentence of between 10 and 20 years in state prison. The maximum sentence for third degree murder is 20 to 40 years in prison.
However, Getz’s sentence will ultimately be up to Vough, who scheduled sentencing hearing for June 21. Getz will remain locked up at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility until then.