RICHMOND, Ky (WKYT) - In May William Cain was arrested and charged with attempted murder for trying to poison his wife, Deborah. On Thursday Cain was in court to plead guilty to a reduced charge of first degree attempted manslaughter.

Cain spoke briefly when he was asked about his guilty plea, but what he said surprised Judge William Clouse Jr.

"Well, I put a little rat poison in her coffee," Cain said.

"You did what?" Clouse asked.

"Put a little rat poison in her coffee," Cain repeated.

Deborah Cain, now William's ex-wife, was in the courtroom when he made his plea.

"He had a girlfriend. I guess he couldn't keep up with two lives, I guess he chose her over me," Deborah said after the hearing.

On May 6 Cain put rat poison in coffee he had made and tried to get Deborah to drink it. She says she was suspicious because he never made coffee and she could tell it had a strange green color when she looked at it.

"I was in shock. I stayed in shock until the first time I come to court, it was just unreal. I would have never thought he would have done that," she said.

Deborah says she received warning about the attack from a friend of William's girlfriend. She says she takes a blood thinner made from the same chemicals as rat poison and thinks William used it so that if she died no one would suspect him.

"They said that I would have bled to death on the inside and wouldn't have known it."

William Cain will return to court for sentencing on February 14, Valentine's Day, his ex-wife says she's relieved he'll be spending that holiday in jail.

"I'm going to get on with my life," she said.
Commonwealth attorneys are recommending that Cain be sentenced to six and a half years in prison.