"I shot her."

That statement from 47-year old Valerie Friend on the death of Carla Collins who was killed in Mingo County back in 2005.

Collins was working as a drug informant at the time.  Friend told Federal Judge John Copenhaver during a Thursday plea hearing in Charleston that she killed Collins, shot her in the chest, at the request of 61-year old George Lecco who, she says, provided the gun used.

"George Lecco wanted Carla dead," Friend said before pleading guilty to a charge of retaliation by killing and an information filing of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

As part of her plea agreement, Friend will be sentenced to life in prison at a later date and has agreed to testify against Lecco in his upcoming trial.  Lecco, Friend says, did not want Collins talking to law enforcement officers about the cocaine business he ran out of the Pizza Plus in Red Jacket.

Friend says he offered cocaine to she and Patricia Burton to silence Collins for good.

Collins' Mother Tina was in the Federal Courtroom on Thursday when Friend talked about what happened in the early morning hours of April 16th, 2005 when her daughter, Carla, was killed.

"It was good to hear it from her mouth, to admit it," Tina Collins said after the hearing.

Friend and Lecco have already been convicted once of killing Collins and sentenced to the death penalty.  The earlier convictions were thrown out, though, because of a member of the jury that convicted them did not disclose that he was under federal investigation at the time.

Collins says those convictions should have stood.

"When they gave her the death penalty, I got peace of mind," she says.  "I don't think it (the juror problem) had any bearing on the case and it shouldn't have."

It's been a long case for everyone involved.

State Police Sergeant Andy Perdue has been part of it from the beginning.  "It took a lot of toll on all of us, investigators, prosecutors, I'm sure the defense attorneys as well, long hours."

No sentencing date has yet been scheduled for Friend.

Lecco's trial had been scheduled to start later this month, but he has a new attorney so a new date will have to be set.