Wife Gets 12 Years for Contract Killing of ‘Lobster Boy’

TAMPA, Fla. â€”  The widow of a pincer-handed sideshow performer known as Lobster Boy was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison for his contract slaying.

“My husband was going to kill my family--I believe that from the bottom of my heart,� Mary Teresa Stiles said through tears as she stood before the judge. “I’m sorry this happened, but my family is safe now . . . . At least I know they’re alive, and I thank God for that.�

Acting Circuit Judge William Fuente said he was “genuinely sympathetic� to the 56-year-old grandmother and had no doubt that she was a battered spouse.

He gave her concurrent sentences for manslaughter and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. State guidelines call for anywhere from seven to 22 years. Stiles has already served nearly two years in jail or under house arrest.

Defense attorney Arnold Levine estimated that his client will end up serving no more than a third of the remaining 10 years and could be out of prison in as little as a year and a half. Her sentence will be followed by five years on probation.

Stiles was convicted last month in the November, 1992, death of 55-year-old carnival performer Grady Stiles Jr. A teen-age neighbor who had been paid $1,500 shot him twice in the back of the head as he watched television.

The neighbor, 19-year-old Christopher Wyant, was convicted of second-degree murder and has been sentenced to 27 years behind bars.

Her stepson, 20-year-old Harry Glenn Newman, was convicted earlier this month of first-degree murder for serving as the middleman in the plot. He is to be sentenced next month to a mandatory life term without possibility of parole for 25 years.