Warmus Wins Parole 30 Years After 'Fatal Attraction' Case

Teacher was convicted of killing her lover's wife
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 6, 2019 2:45 AM CDT
Updated May 6, 2019 2:45 PM CDT
Warmus Wins Parole 30 Years After 'Fatal Attraction' Trial
Carolyn Warmus during her trial in 1991.   (John Pedin/The Daily News via AP, File)

Carolyn Warmus, who was convicted of killing her lover's wife in an infamous 1989 case, has won parole after 27 years in a New York prison. She could be released as soon as June 10, CNN reports. Warmus was found guilty of killing Betty Jeanne Solomon; Warmus was a schoolteacher in her twenties having an affair with Solomon's husband, Paul, who was 17 years older. He worked with Warmus at a Westchester County elementary school. Prosecutors said Warmus grew tired of waiting for Solomon to leave his wife, who was shot nine times in her home. The first trial ended in a hung jury, but Warmus was convicted of second-degree murder the next year.

The sensational trial spawned TV movies and documentaries, and was widely referred to as the "Fatal Attraction" case after the 1987 Michael Douglas-Glenn Close movie of that name. Prosecutors said Warmus had developed an obsessive attachment to her lover, per the New York Post. After killing his wife, they said, Warmus met Paul Solomon at a hotel bar and had sex with him in his car. She has long claimed to be innocent of the slaying; at an earlier parole hearing, Warmus blamed media attention for her conviction. She has told CNN she was "collateral damage" in a setup; Paul Solomon was a suspect at the time. Warmus said in 2016 that she'd get a different verdict in this era, per CBS: "I'm in prison for 25 years to life because I dated a married man." (Nearly 30 years later, some are questioning the sentence of another woman involved in an infamous murder.)

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