Ex-corrections officer guilty of murder

Kim Wolfe, 44, a Baldwin resident and a former corrections officer, pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping charges last week and is expected to be sentenced to 22 years in prison next month. Wolfe’s plea encompassed the entire indictment against her, including two counts of second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

The sequence of incidents leading to Wolfe’s arrest played out in the early morning hours of June 17, 2010, when she and her former girlfriend, Stacie Williams, a nurse’s aide, met outside the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, reportedly to discuss mending their relationship.

Details of the encounter are sketchy, but at its conclusion Wolfe shot her former partner in the head and chest, killing her, then fled to a relative’s home about three miles away in Hempstead. There Wolfe killed her uncle, wounded her 88-year-old grandfather and took a 23-year-old niece hostage. Wolfe began driving toward Atlantic City with her niece, but police negotiators eventually persuaded her to return and surrender. Her niece was not harmed.

Wolfe worked at the Nassau County jail for 19 years. Because of those ties she has been housed in the Suffolk penal system while awaiting sentencing. Acquaintances of both the killer and her victims questioned after the attacks suggested that depression created by Wolfe’s status as an openly gay woman may have contributed to a breakdown. A dispute over some life insurance policies is also thought to have been a factor.

Before accepting Wolfe’s guilty plea last week, Nassau County Court Judge David Ayres told her, “It is my intention that you never walk the streets as a free woman, do you understand that?” Ayres also pointed out that a 22-year sentence might be regarded as lenient in view of the fact that the two murder counts alone could have carried a sentence of 50 years to life.

50 years was, in fact, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s target when prosecution of the case began. “Kim Wolfe’s violent rampage took the lives of two innocent people, and will forever impact the lives of so many others,” Rice said. “I will do whatever is in my power to ensure that this defendant remains locked in prison for the rest of her life.”

Wolfe’s sentence will be announced on Nov. 2.

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