Woman pleads guilty to killing handyman

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 8:38 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman told a District Court judge Wednesday that she strangled her former handyman with pantyhose before burying him in her back yard.

The admission came as Ana Mitchel, 37, pleaded guilty to a single count of voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon in the death of 44-year-old Cecil Walter Wilson.

The guilty plea was the result of a plea deal.

Mitchel, a former dealer at the Stardust, was direct when she told District Judge Sally Loehrer what she did to warrant her guilty plea.

"I strangled Cecil Wilson," she said. "I used a pair of panty hose ... as a ligature."

Mitchel will face a sentence of seven to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on April 28, Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane said.

Wilson's body was found at Mitchel's home in the 1200 block of Eighth Place off Charleston Boulevard and 10th Street.

It took the Clark County coroner's office six months to identify the body, which was badly decomposed.

Wilson was living with Mitchel off and on in the months leading up to his death because he was doing some handy work around her house, Kane said.

Prosecutors said Mitchel killed Wilson and buried him in December 2002 and tried to move the body in July because she was being evicted from the residence.

"Since she was moving, she didn't want to leave a body buried in the back yard. That's our theory," Kane said. "Otherwise it could have stayed there for who knows how long."

Mitchel was expected to stand trial next week on murder charges stemming from the slaying. Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing, said he believed the plea deal was in his client's best interest.

"The negotiations reflected her responsibility," he said. "She's willing to accept responsibility for what she did."