Man Gets One Year in Prison for Role in 2002 Drowning Death

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Published: May 28, 2008

ABINGDON, Va. – For his role in the 2002 death of Christa Brae Hart, Charlie Theodore Stiltner Sr. will serve one year in prison, a circuit court judge ruled today.
Stiltner, 46, who was arrested last August, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors amended the second-degree murder charge against him. Their case against Stiltner was based on circumstantial evidence from witnesses who were not present at Hart’s death, said Dennis Godfrey, Washington County’s commonwealth’s attorney. That, coupled with Stiltner’s conflicting statements to police, would make it difficult to prove the murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury, Godfrey said in court.
As a result of his plea, circuit court Judge C. Randall Lowe sentenced Stiltner to 10 years in prison, with all but one year suspended, and gave him three years of active supervised probation.
“A case like this probably raises as many questions as it does answers,” Lowe said in delivering his verdict.
Noting the age of the case, Lowe said, “those answers are not likely to come.”
Stiltner was the only one charged in connection with the death of Hart, who was found dead in South Holston Lake in October 2002.
For reaction from Hart’s family, read Thursday’s Bristol Herald Courier.