Before presiding Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith, Otis Cecil Wilkins, 48, of 205 Bacon Rd. in Rougemont entered an Alford plea of guilty to second degree murder in connection with the death of Lynn Chambers Gibbs, 50, of 56 Dorrance Ct.

The plea arrangement calls for Wilkins to serve between 252 and 312 months in prison.

An Alford plea is a form of a guilty plea wherein the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence, but admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to render a guilty verdict against the defendant.

An autopsy report last year indicated Gibbs likely died from either strangulation or suffocation.

Shortly after his arrest last year, Wilkins, in a written statement, admitted to choking Gibbs.

Wilkins, whose court-appointed attorney was Wallace Bradsher, told Person County Sheriff’s Department deputies that he and Gibbs had been smoking crack cocaine on Jan. 18, 2007, and he alleged Gibbs assaulted him with an ashtray.

Wilkins wrote in his statement that he “grabbed Lynn around her throat with both of my hands and had her down on the couch.

“Lynn started kicking and kicked the glass table over,” Wilkins continued. “I was also high on cocaine and it didn’t feel like I held her down that long.

“When I got up from her, I knew that Lynn was dead,” Wilkins said in the statement. “I then covered her up with a blanket.”

Wilkins went on to write that he left Gibbs’ house on her vehicle and drove it to Durham before hitchhiking back to his home in Rougemont, where he was arrested on Jan. 20.

Sheriff’s deputies found Gibbs dead in her home off the Hurdle Mills Road, near Payne’s Tavern, early in the morning of Jan. 20.

Wilkins has been held in the Person County jail without privilege of bond since his arrest. During Tuesday morning’s proceedings, Wilkins was given credit for the 494 days he has been in jail.

Deputies found Gibbs’ body last year after being called to the residence to perform “a welfare check,” Person County Sheriff Dewey Jones said. Gibbs had not shown up for work at her Chapel Hill beauty shop, which caused concern among co-workers.

Deputies subsequently reported that when they entered on home, they found Gibbs’ body on a couch.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, Wilkins reportedly offered condolences to family members of Gibbs who were in the courtroom.

Wilkins, who has an extensive criminal record, had been out of prison for just over a month at the time of Gibbs’ death. The North Carolina Department of Corrections released him on Dec. 7, 2006, after Wilkins had served seven months for a Durham County conviction on a misdemeanor charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

In 1999, Wilkins was placed on probation in Person County after being convicted of a misdemeanor charge of assault by pointing a gun. He was also placed on probation in Durham County in 1995 for a misdemeanor charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

In 1982, Wilkins began a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of felony larceny of firearms in Durham County.

Wilkins also served nearly three years in prison for a 1978 felony breaking and entering conviction in Durham County.

One year earlier, Wilkins was sentenced to serve just over five months in prison for a felony common law robbery charge in Durham County.