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WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY YO 2ND-DEGREE MURDERPosted 02 Mar 2012 by TimeLineTravelerMcConnellsburg, PAThe three day trial of Mrs. Estalene Houck, 40, of Big Cove Tannery came to an abrupt end late Thursday afternoon when she changed her plea to guilty of second degree murder. Dr. R.C. McLucas of McConnellsburg broke the defense's case when he testified the victim, Calvin C Lynch, 46, a terminal cancer patient, was to weak to have beaten and threatened Mrs. Houck as she claimed.Fulton County Court Judge, John W. Keller ordered a presentence investigation. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison. Originally, Mrs. Houck plead not guilty on the ground that she hit Lynch, also of Big cove Tannery, with a rolling pin at his trailer last April in self defence. He died of head injuries the following day in the medical center. The change in plea came near the end of the jury trial after both of the commonwealth and the defence rested their cases.Mrs. Houck's attorney asked for a 10-minute recess. Fifty-five minutes later Mrs. Houck, red-eyed for the first time in the trial, and her attorney, public defender, Stewart Kurtz, asked the court to change the defendants plea. Mrs. Houck testified for four hours. She stated that she struck Lynch, her boy-friend numerous times with a rolling pin around noon on April 24 after Lynch had beaten her with his fists. She claimed she was attacked several times earlier in the day and also on April 22. she stated that she hit him because she feared for her life and the life of her year old baby.She testified that she struck him in their trailer and then again in the yard. she said she was not sure where she hit him because she was trying to get away from him. Defence witness Dr. Charles Taylor, a York psychiatrist followed Mrs. Houck to the witness stand. Dr. Tayor said that Mrs. houck was not mentally disturbed then or now. But, in his opinion, the defendant had undergone great stress at the time of the incident because of fear for her life. The doctor believed she responded in a normal manner to the events after Lynch's death, indicating that her memory lapse surrounding certain details of the incident was probably due to confusion.