TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer

The Providence Journal

Tuesday, 4/4/2006

As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors will recommend that a Middletown woman serve no more than six years in prison for the assault that nearly killed her aunt.

NEWPORT -- In the midst of her trial on felony assault charges, a Middletown mother of three yesterday pleaded no contest to attacking her elderly aunt with bleach in an incident that almost killed the 70-year-old woman.

Evangeline "Lea" Henry, 45, of 64 Beagle Drive, Middletown, was serving as guardian for her aunt, Mary S. Goulios, at the time of the bleach attack, which occurred on Dec. 15, 2004, at Goulios' apartment at the AHEPA house, subsidized housing for the elderly at 87 Girard Ave.

In return for Henry's admission of guilt, prosecutors said they would recommend that Henry serve no more than six years in prison. They also dismissed a second felony assault charge she was being tried on in connection with the same incident.

Superior Court Judge Edwin J. Gale scheduled sentencing for May 30. Henry remains free until then.

In response to questioning by the judge, Henry -- who stood weeping before him -- said she accepted full responsibility for her actions. She entered a plea of no contest to a charge of assault and battery on a person over 60, causing serious bodily injury. The second felony charge, the one dismissed by the state, accused Henry of assaulting an elderly person with a dangerous substance, the bleach.

The no-contest plea, which Gale told Henry is essentially "the same thing as pleading guilty," came on the fifth day of her jury trial on the two felony assault charges. The prosecution wrapped up its case -- with Goulios as its star witness -- on Friday. Henry had been expected to take the stand in her defense when the trial resumed yesterday morning. She had claimed since being charged that the harm she had caused her aunt had been an act of self-defense, that her aunt had been the aggressor.

At the time of the bleach attack, Goulios was questioning expenditures Henry had made with her money and was trying to get her niece removed as her guardian.

Asked after court why his client had decided mid-trial to suddenly admit her guilt, defense lawyer J. Terence Houlihan Jr. said the decision had been made over the weekend because of "the facts that came out in the course of the trial." He said part of the reason the plea bargain was acceptable was because prosecutors agreed, as part of the deal, not to seek additional jail time for Henry if she were to admit that she unlawfully stole money from her aunt while serving as her guardian.

Prosecutors Roger Demers and Feidlim E. Gill announced in court yesterday that they plan to bring another felony charge against Henry, before her sentencing on the assault charge, for allegedly embezzling her aunt's money.

As part of protracted Probate Court proceedings, Henry has already repaid her aunt close to $20,000 but prosecutors said they will be seeking additional restitution from her after they file the embezzlement charge. "The amount has yet to be determined, but it's more than she's paid to date," said Demers.

Houlihan and the prosecutors said that a Superior Court magistrate would determine at a separate hearing what additional amount Henry owes, after the embezzlement case is resolved.

Henry was removed as Goulios' guardian after the bleach attack, which sent Goulios to the hospital with first-degree burns to her head, eyes, mouth, throat, neck, arms, back, legs and feet. She was unconscious, in critical condition, for four days. As part of the case, prosecutors projected photographs of Goulios' burns so that jurors could see the extent of her injuries.

Henry told the court yesterday that she is on medication for depression, anxiety and sleeplessness. Gale asked whether she felt she was "in a position mentally and physically" to make a decision to halt her trial and plead no contest. Henry said she knowingly and voluntarily was giving up her right to proceed with the trial and put on a defense. The judge said he believed she was fully competent to make those decisions.

As Henry entered her no-contest plea, her mother, who is Goulios' older sister, along with her father and husband, sat in the spectator section.

Goulios, who was alerted to the unexpected development too late to watch the proceedings, said afterward that she was "happy" that her niece had admitted her guilt, but added, "in a way, I feel bad because of her children."

Goulios' lawyer, Richard P. D'Addario, said he believed Henry had been "under-charged. She should have been charged with attempted murder and embezzlement at the same time," he said.

tbreton@projo.com / (401) 277-7362