A Michigan woman who authorities believe was married up to 15 times pleaded guilty to one count of polygamy Wednesday.
On the day Kyle Elizabeth McConnell's bench trial was set to begin, a lawyer for the 46-year-old defendant told the court she wished to plead guilty without the possibility of a plea agreement.
She faces up to four years in prison when she is sentenced on Sept. 26.
The charge stemmed from her September 2005 marriage to Douglas Rice of Macomb Township while she was already married to Richard McConnell of St. Clair County.
Authorities believe the men were just two of many whom McConnell left broken-hearted and bankrupt, as she went from one spouse to the next before they even realized she had cleaned out their bank accounts.
Authorities believe McConnell has been married at least 15 times. Her corrections profile lists 14 aliases, though some appear to be variations of the same last name. Since her arrest, at least three of her former partners have come forward to accuse McConnell of theft and fraud.
In each case, a whirlwind courtship that began online ended in marriage. McConnell would then allegedly persuade her new husband to hand over control of their finances so she could change the mailing address attached to the account. She'd then allegedly empty the account and leave him a few months later.
McConnell pleaded guilty in April to attempted forgery and intent to defraud for writing bad checks to former husband Richard McConnell. Those checks were drawn on an account belonging to Len Battaglia, who she married before McConnell.
Even so, Macomb County prosecutor Michael Servitto said that the polygamy case focused solely on the simultaneous unions between the defendant, Richard McConnell and Douglas Rice.
"From our view, it's pretty straightforward," Servitto said Tuesday. "She married Mr. McConnell and then married Mr. Rice without obtaining a divorce from Mr. McConnell beforehand."
Servitto said he was prepared to try his case Wednesday, and that the defendant's change of heart was a surprise to him.
"I guess she saw the writing on the wall," Servitto told CourtTVnews.com "Whether she was tried or she pled out, I think the result would have been the same."
With the polygamy charge disposed of, Servitto said his office was mulling fraud charges against McConnell for swindling her most recent husband, Douglas Rice.
In previous media statements, defense lawyer Robert McClellan suggested that, because his client was already married to Len Battaglia when she married McConnell, her marriage to McConnell was invalid.
"Since the marriage to Richard McConnell wasn't a legal marriage, she wasn't guilty of polygamy when she later married Mr. Rice," McClellan told the Macomb Daily in 2006. "It's more correct to call her a serial monogamist."
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