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Wife pleads not guilty to charges in estranged husband’s death

Posted at 1:22 PM, Dec 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-03 13:22:40-05

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WTVR) – The woman accused of killing her estranged husband outside his Colonial Heights home pleaded not guilty.

During a court hearing Tuesday, Ashley Mack entered the plea on charges of murder, malicious wounding, malicious wounding by mob, mob: murder by lynching, and second-degree murder in the death of Rusty Mack.

Mack will go on trial Monday in Chesterfield.

Last month, the judge agreed to move the trial out of Colonial Heights, where Mack’s death received much attention. Mack’s lawyer, Joe Morrissey, hoped the charges against her would be dropped before trial.

“The judge said last week to the prosecutor it’s quote ‘time to fish or cut bait.’ He [the prosecutor] has dug himself in and I think he had no choice…and it’s not going to be a pleasant experience for the prosecution on Monday,” Morrissey said after Tuesday’s hearing.

Ashley Mack was one of four people charged in the Feb. 2013 beating death of her husband Rusty Mack.

Ashley Mack is accused of hitting and kicking Rusty Mack, to whom she’d been married for a few months, outside his Colonial Heights apartment. Mack died as a result of his injuries.

She will be the third of the four suspects to face trial in this case. A jury found the first suspect not guilty and charges were nolle prossed against the second suspect.