Married white Mississippi cop will avoid death penalty with guilty plea after shooting dead his black mom-of-four lover after she 'fell pregnant'

A white former police officer in Mississippi will accept a life sentence without parole in the 2019 shooting death of a black woman with whom he was allegedly having a romantic relationship, after she reportedly told him she was pregnant.

Assistant district attorney Mickey Mallette in Lafayette County and attorney Carlos Moore, representing the family of Dominique Clayton, confirmed the plea agreement with former Oxford police officer Matthew Kinne, to the Oxford Eagle on Monday.

Kinne is set to be sentenced Friday at the Union County Courthouse in New Albany, the newspaper said, adding that a circuit court clerk also confirmed the plea deal but Kinney's attorney, Tony Farse, couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

Kinne was indicted in August 2019 on a capital murder charge, which has only two possible penalties: death or life without parole. He pleaded not guilty at the time, and has been awaiting trial ever since.

 Oxford Police Officer Matthew Kinne was charged in August 2019 with murder of Dominic Clayton, who family members said he had been romantically involved with

Clayton, 32, was a mother of four. Her body was reportedly found by her 8-year-old son

Kinne was married at the time he was allegedly having an affair with Clayton

Authorities said Kinne broke into Clayton´s home and shot the 32-year-old woman, a mother of four, in the back of the head as she slept. Her 8-year-old son found her body on May 19, 2019.

Kinne was arrested the day after the body was found, and fired three days later. Two other police officers also resigned in the next month, the Eagle reports.

Kinne had been with the department for four years, and just a few months before the shooting, in January, the Oxford Police Department named Kinne its mounted patrol officer of the year.

Shortly after his arrest, the Eagle reports, Kinne was transferred to a county jail, after a photo surfaced of him eating a meal at a guard desk unsupervised and unrestrained.

And in September of that year, his attorneys tried to claim he was unfit to stand trial, and ordered a psychological evaluation for him.

Kinne had been with the Oxford Police Department for four years at the time of his arrest, and was named the department's Mounted Police Officer of the Year a few months prior

Clayton was found on May 19, 2019 dead with a gun shot to the back of her head

Her sister, Shyjuan Clayton, claimed Kinne bought her a car and was about to buy her a house

Family members have claimed that Clayton and Kinne were in a relationship, despite his marriage to another woman.

'He bought my sister a car, he had it in his name,' the victim's sister, Shyjuan Clayton, told WHBQ-TV, 'he was about to get her a house, he basically just didn't want his wife to find out.'

Moore said at the time that Clayton had told her family she was afraid Kinne might harm her because she had told him she might be pregnant.

Clayton's family has since sued the city of Oxford and the Oxford Police Department for $5 million, saying officials failed to supervise Kinne. Their attorney claims Kinne was on duty when he entered the home.

Oxford police caused the family undue stress by first saying that she might have killed herself even though no gun was found, Moore said.