Terry Lynn Mikel

A Hanceville man accused of shooting and killing his estranged wife in 2013 took a plea deal this week and was sentenced to 32 years in prison, avoiding the possibility of the death penalty.

Terry Mikel, 49, pleaded guilty to murder for the killing of his wife, Angela Annette Mikel, 41, who was found dead in her vehicle from multiple gunshot wounds on County Road 38 on July 28, 2013. Terry Mikel and his son, Charles Christopher Burks, were both charged with murder shortly after the discovery of Angela Mikel’s body and have been incarcerated at the Cullman County Detention Center.

Terry Mikel was set to go to trial this week with Circuit Judge Greg Nicholas presiding. Instead, the Cullman County District Attorney’s Office made an offer — plead guilty to murder and prosecutors would drop the capital murder charge a grand jury indicted him on for shooting Angela Mikel in her vehicle. In October 2013, District Attorney Wilson Blaylock told The Times he planned to seek the death penalty in the case. 

According to the plea agreement, Terry Mikel will be given credit for time served in county jail — knocking three years off the original 35-year prison sentence — and after he is released, he must pay $1,326.39 to the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission, all court and attorneys’ fees and another $65 to the Crime Victim’s Compensation Assessment.

It’s not clear what the conviction means for Burks’ case. He remains in jail on a $75,000 cash bond. According to his indictment, he was charged with murder for “aiding and abetting Terry Lynn Mikel by getting him a .22 caliber revolver” which was used in the shooting.

Angela and Terry Mikel had a contentious relationship, marked with several reported incidents of domestic violence, including one where Terry Mikel was accused of pouring a pot of boiling beans on his wife.

A week before she was found dead, Angela had applied for a protection from abuse order against Terry Mikel, citing domestic abuse, and had been staying with her aunt. Authorities believe Angela had been shot and killed the evening before her body was discovered. 

“She was shot in her vehicle and [the car was driven] to a vacant mobile home,” said former Sheriff Mike Rainey in 2013. “We found her in the car that is registered to her behind the mobile home on County Road 38.”

Prior to his guilty plea, Mikel had maintained that he shot his wife out of self-defense. He claims that he and Angela Mikel argued as she sat in the driver’s seat of her vehicle and he stood outside, talking to her through the window.

According to Mikel, Angela resisted his attempts to continue their conversation by trying to end the argument and drive away, allegedly threatening to use force by telling him she had a .357 revolver and making a reaching motion as if to grab the gun. Mikel admitted to investigators that he shot Angela, telling them he thought she was preparing to shoot him.

Investigators searched Angela Mikel’s vehicle but never located the alleged weapon. The vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, has since been resold and destroyed.