Shon Pernice pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of his wife

LIBERTY, Mo. - Shon Pernice pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to voluntary manslaughter in the death of his wife.

Shon Pernice, 39, said he hit Renee Pernice on Jan. 2, 2009. She fell down the stairs and died.

The change of plea came during a 3:30 p.m. emergency hearing in Clay County Circuit Court. The guilty plea comes six days before Shon Pernice was set to go to trial.

“Shon today, began accepting the responsibility and consequences for his past mistakes. He admitted today that he made two enormous mistakes that had lasting consequences for many people,” said Eric Vernon, Shon Pernice’s attorney.

Shon Pernice was originally indicted for first-degree murder in the death of his wife . She was last seen on Jan. 1, 2009. Nearby searches turned up nothing but Renee Pernice's cellphone.  Her body was never found.

“I think he threw it in the dumpster just like we thought,” Clay County prosecutor Daniel White said Tuesday. “We had evidence for a long time that he accessed the dumpster in northeast area about a mile from where her phone was found. No one should ever think her body will be recoverable ."

The family of Renee Pernice has decided to retract the $25,000 reward they had offered for locating their daughter or in the event of an arrest in the case.

"My heart breaks for them, because in this job, sometimes you meet some of the greatest people under some of the worst circumstances and this is a situation where I feel like that,” said White.

Renee Pernice had started divorce proceedings when she vanished. The 35-year-old nurse had two sons and a stepdaughter.

Shon Pernice was a firefighter in Independence. He has also served in the National Guard and with the Army in Iraq.

After Renee Pernice's disappearance, Shon Pernice was also accused of stealing a neighbor's handgun and endangering his two sons. As part of Tuesday's plea agreement, he admitted two counts of child endangerment. Prosecutors dropped theft and witness tampering charges.

In advance of the trial, attorneys had been arguing over whether the prosecution could use GPS evidence used to track Shon Pernice. His attorneys asked that the evidence be removed because authorities failed to obtain a search warrant to place the GPS device on Shon Pernice's vehicle. A judge was expected to rule on the matter soon.

Shon Pernice will be sentenced on May 11.

Editor's Note: The original article incorrectly reported that Shon Pernice pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.